842 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [Voir. 



1876. KiDDEii, J. H., and Coues, E. A study of ChioBis luiuor witli reference to its 

 Structure and Systematic Position. <^BuU. U. S. Nat.Mus., No. 3, 1876, pp. 

 85-116. 



After De Blainville's original memoir of 1836 on the anatomy and taxonomy of 0. alha, this 

 article is the principal authority on the structuie and systematic position of the family Chio- 

 nididce. The species studied is G. minor, not only fuUy endorsed as to its specific validity, 

 hut raised to the rank of a separate genus (Ghionarchus, g. n., p. 116). The taxonomic value 

 of the family is also raised to equivalency with the major groups indicated hy Huxley hy the 

 termination -morphce, under the style of Ghionomorphce (p. 115). 



The articie opens with a review of the literature of the whole subject, from Forster's found- 

 ing of the genus Ghionis in 1788, to date, De Blainville's paper being specially noted (pp. 

 85-90). The description of G. minor follows (pp. 91,92); the anatomy of the same species 

 continues (pp. 92-107) with an account of the principal muscles and viscera, and a descrip- 

 tion of the whole skeleton. A " Statement of Conclusions deduced from the foregoing" con- 

 cludes the paper. De Blainville's views of the near relationship of Ghionis to Hcematopus are 

 criticized and dissented from. "In summiag external characters, therefore, we see how 

 exactly Ghionis stands between grallatorial and natatorial birds, retaining slight but per- 

 fectly distiact traces of several other types of structure " (p. 109). "We thus find in Ghionis 

 a connecting link, closing the narrow gap between the plovers and gulls of the present day. 

 In our opinion, this group represents the survivors of an ancestral type from which both 

 gulls and plovers have descended. And this opinion is strongly supported by the geograph- 

 ical isolation of its habitat, affording but few conditions favorable to variation" (p. 114). 

 Ghionis being consequently not referable to either of the two superfamily groups between 

 which it stands, the group Ghionomorphce is established for its reception, and defined — the 

 Chionomorphs ' ' constituting exactly the heretofore unrecognized link between the Charadrio- 

 morphs and Cecomorphs, nearer the latter than the former, and still nearer the common an- 

 cestral stock of both." Of the two recognized species, G. minor is decided to be "undoubt' 

 edly nearest to the ancestral type," and is therefore named Ghionarchus minor. 



Other observations on Ghionis minor, by Dr. Kidder, are found ibid., p. 7 ; and in op. cit, 



!N"o. 2, 1875, pp. 1 ; but these are not separate articles. I am under the impression that 



one or more special papers on Ghionis appeared after 1876 ; but if so, I have not indexed the 

 periodicals in which they are contained. 



