GEDICNEMINiE. 



They are migratory birds, inhabiting all parts of the world except North America, seeking the more temperate 

 regions to rear their young, and the warmer latitudes to pass the winter. These periodical flights are performed in 

 flocks during the night, with great swiftness. It is in uncultivated open moorlands that these birds are generally found. 

 Their food is sought for during the evening or at night ; it consists of small quadrupeds, reptiles, and especially 

 worms and insects. During the day they sit closely squatted behind a stone, or any other object sufficiently large to 

 hide them ; but, if disturbed, they fly to a short distance, and then run off to hide with great rapidity. Each female 

 deposits two eggs on the surface of the bare ground. The young are capable of following the parent as soon as 

 they are excluded from the egg. 



1. (Ed. crepitans Temm. PI. enl. 919. — Charadrius (Edicnemus 

 Linn. ; (Ed. europseus Vieill. ; (Ed. griseus Koch. 



2. (Ed. senegalensis Swains. Birds of W. Afr. ii. 228. — (Ed. 

 affinis? RiLpp. Mus. Senck. 1834. 210. 



3. (Ed. maculosus Temm. PI. col. 292. — (Ed. capensis Licht. 



4. (Ed. bistriatus (Wagl.) Isis, 1829. 648. — (Ed. vocifer L'Herm. 

 Mag.de Zool. 1837. ph 84.; (Ed. americanus Swains. 



5, (Ed. grallarius (Lath.) Lambert's Icon. ined. iii. t. 11. — (Ed. 

 longipes Vieill. PI. col. 386.; Charadrius frenatus Lath. Lambert's 

 Icon. ined. iii. t. 41.; ? Charadrius magnirostris * Lath. Lamberts 

 Icon. ined. ii. t. 19- 



6. (Ed. giganteus Licht. Isis, 1829- 647. 



Esacus Less.f 



Bill much longer than the head, strong, the culmen more or less straight, with the base cultrated, and 

 the tip gradually or suddenly hooked ; the base broad, and the sides gradually compressed to the tip ; 

 the lateral margins more or less curving upwards to the tip, and angulated at the base ; the lower 

 mandible strong, with the gonys half its length, angulated, and advancing upwards to the tip ; the 

 nostrils placed in a membranous groove, rather less than half the length of the bill, with the aperture 

 longitudinal, anterior, and near the margin. 



They inhabit the wide sandy banks of the larger rivers of India during the winter, and, as the summer advances, 

 migrate to the northern parts of India. Their food consists of crabs and other hard shellfish. They are also found 

 in the Indian Archipelago and Australia. 



1. Es. recurvirostris (Cuv.) Less.- 

 (Edicnemus recurvirostris Swains. 



-Carvanaca grisea Hodgs.; 1 2. Es. magnirostris (Geoff.) Temm. PI. col. 387. 



* The type of Illiger's genus Burhinus, which was established in 1811 on Latham's short description, taken from the badly executed 

 drawing referred to above. 



f This is coequal with Carvanaca, of Mr. Hodgson, published in the Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1836, p. 776. In 1841 he changed it to 

 Pseudops. M. Lesson's name was published in 1831, in his Traite d'Ornithologie, p. 547. 



May, 1844. 



