168 8PUB-WINGED PLOVEB. 



GRALLATORES. 



Family CHARADRIID^. (Bonaparte.) 



Genus Hoplopterus. 



Generic Characters, — Wings furnished with a long and stout, slightly- 

 curved, horny spur, present at all seasons; no hind toe; otherwise as in 

 Vanellus. — BonapartEo 



SPUR- WINGED PLOVER. 



Hoplopterus spinosus. 



Charadrius spinosus, Linn^us; Syst. Nat. i., p. 256, (1766.) 



Vanellus melasomus, Swainson; Birds W. Afr. ii., p. 237, (1837.) 



Hoplopterus spinosus, Bonaparte; List, (1838,) p. 46. 



" " Keys, et Blas.; Wirbelth. Eur,, (1840.) 



Pluvier armi commun, Of the French. 



Gemeiner Spornkiebiet%, Of the Germans. 



Specific Characters. — Forehead and crown black, the feathers of the 

 occiput elongated into a crest; throat, breast and upper portion of the 

 abdomen, distal half of tail and primaries black; sides of face and neck, 

 as also the nape, lower part of abdomen, and basal half of tail pure white. 

 Dorsal plumage and wing coverts hair brown, inclining to ashy grey, a 

 sharp strong spur on each carpal joint. Length eleven inches; wing 

 from carpal joint eight inches; tarsus two inches and a half; bill one 

 inch and one fifth; tail three inches and a half. 



The European localities of the SjDur-winged Plover are Turkey, 

 Greece, Russia, and occasionally Sicily and Malta. M. Nordmann 

 records having sliot a male out of a_ flock of eight or ten, near 

 Odessa, in 1837, in company with a large flock of the Sociable 

 Plover, Chcetusia gregaria. In Africa it has a wide range. It is 

 very common in Senegal, whence it derives tlie name given to it 



