3 8a 



The Plover-like Birds 



Borneo the place is occupied by the Australian Stone Plover (Orthorhamphus 

 magnirostris}, which is the largest member of the family, being twenty-two and 

 a half inches long, and while similar to the last is known by its very differently 

 shaped bill, which is straight and convex. This is more of a coast bird than 

 the others, having a preference for the low, flat shores of the sea, where it feeds 

 on crabs, marine insects, worms, and various kinds of mollusks. According 

 to Gould, it is active at night, giving utterance to a loud scream or cry, resembling 

 the word wee-lo, whence the aboriginal name. The two very large eggs are 

 laid on the sand just above the high-water mark. 



THE JACANAS 



(Family Jacanidce) 



Of Brazilian origin the name Jacana 1 has come to be universally ap- 

 plied to a small, well-marked tropical group of marsh-frequenting birds 

 with rather long legs and a general Rail-like appearance, but which are 

 now conceded to be most closely related to the Plovers. The most marked 

 characteristic is the enormously long toes and claws, especially that of the 



hind toe, which is longer than the toe itself, 

 which enables them to walk with ease over 

 the water lilies and other aquatic plants grow- 

 ing in ponds and marshes. They are small 

 birds, the largest not much exceeding a foot in 

 length when in the non-breeding plumage, and 

 the smallest but half this, and they have a 

 rather short neck, small head, and a moder- 

 ately long bill which may or may not be pro- 

 vided with a frontal shield or lappet, while 

 the wrist joint is armed with a usually strong 

 spur. The plumage is rather handsomely 

 colored, showing much of Tblack, brown, 

 golden, and white, the first often glossed with 

 purplish or greenish, and relieved by dashes of greenish yellow; in some there 

 is a marked difference between the breeding plumage and that worn at other 

 seasons. The Jacanas are very widely distributed, ranging through middle 

 America and northern South America, reappearing in Africa south of the Tropic 

 of Cancer, and thence spreading through the Indian and Malay peninsulas to 

 Australia, Borneo, and the Philippines. Their habits are everywhere very 

 similar, as they frequent slow-flowing streams, ponds, and marshes, running 

 with ease over the lily pads and feeding on seeds and tender bits of vegetation, as 

 well as insects and crustaceans. Some of them seem to take pleasure in dis- 



FIG. 131. Mexican Jacana, Jacana 

 spinosa. 



Pronounced Hasana. 



