ORDER GRALL.T,. 4Gl 



posing it have been classed with tringa by Linnaeus and 

 Latham, and with the jocanas by Gmelin and Lacepede. 

 Their generic characters are these: the bill short, compressed, 

 straight, slender, and swelled at the extremity of the two 

 mandibles, the base of the upper mandible very much widened 

 by the prolongation of the nasal furrow ; nostrils cleft length- 

 wise in the membrane of the furrow ; wings sharp ; first 

 remex the shortest, fourth and fifth the longest ; carpus of 

 the wing sometimes provided with a sharp spur ; tarsi, 

 narrow, of moderate size, with three toes before, and a thumb 

 scarcely touching the ground. 



The body of the lapwing is massive, and all the species 

 resemble one another in their port and appearance. They 

 live, in flocks, in humid meadows, and on the borders of rivers. 

 Their manners are pretty analogous to those of the plovers, 

 and, like them, they feed on worms, frog-spawn, &c., and 

 even on the germs of tender plants. 



The habits of the foreign species are not yet perfectly 

 known. The European are birds of passage, and live in 

 large flocks. These birds are found in all parts of the 

 world. 



From the lapwings, properly so called, has been separated 

 the Squatarola, named by Latham the Grey Sandpiper. Its 

 distinctive character is, that the first remex is the longest, and 

 the thumb a mere rudiment ; the latter is more developed in 

 the lapwings proper, and they have the fourth and fifth 

 remiges the longest. 



This bird has been described by Gmelin under three names, 

 and figured three times, in the " Planches Enluminees" of 

 Buffon, according to the modifications of the plumage, which 

 varies at different ages. The last mentioned author has given 

 it the name of vcmneaii pluvier, to mark at once its analogies 

 with the species of the two genera of the lapwings and the 

 plovers. It is thought by some, that Aristotle speaks of this 



