LOBIVANELLUS. 



177 



Geographi- 

 cal dietribu- 

 tion. 



convenient one, and some facts of its geographical distribution appear to be in favour of 

 its validity. 



The Lapwings having wattles are ahiiost as numerous as those which are without 

 these peculiar appendages, but the former are distributed over a much smaller area. 

 There are no Wattled Lapwings in the New World, and the only part of the Palsearctic 

 Region in which they occur is in the valley of the Hoang-Ho and in Southern Japan, a 

 debatable ground, the ornithological affinities of which are perhaps more Oriental than 

 Palaearctic, and which belong to the Tropical Region of the Charadriidee Six species 

 inhabit the Ethiopian Region and four the Oriental Region, whilst the remaining three 

 belong to the Australian Region. Of the true Lapwings no less than four breed within 

 the confines of the Palsearctic Region, five are found in the Etfiiopian Region, whilst only 

 one is found during the breeding-season in the Oriental Region and none in the Austrahan 

 Region, but no less than three are Neotropical. 



A possible explanation of the differences in these distributions may be that the two Emigra- 

 genera originated during the Pre-Pliocene Glacial Epoch, when the family of Charadriidse ^'°"^- 

 appears to have been dispersed, isolated, and differentiated into the species which became 

 the ancestors of the present genera. When the Post-Pliocene Glacial Period came on, the 

 true Lapwings, which had probably been isolated in West Africa and afterwards spread 

 over the western half of the Palsearctic Region, were again driven south, one detachment 

 reaching India, but the greater part keeping west, some crossing the line to struggle for 

 existence with the Wattled Lapwings in the Ethiopian Region, whilst others hung on the 

 outskirts of the glaciers, and the more adventurous crossed the Atlantic into South 

 America. 



The Wattled Lapwings, on the other hand, were probably isolated in India, and 

 afterwards spread into Mongolia. When they were driven south again by the Post- 

 Pliocene Glacial Epoch, they seem to have followed both coasts, or crossed both seas, some 

 emigrating west into the Ethiopian Region and others east into the Australian Region. 



Synonymy of the Genus Lobivanellus. 



Type. 

 L. senegalensis. 



Lobivanellus,") „.,, ,„ ^,^ -,„>-, „„r.r. 



„ . , ' \ Strickland, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1841, pp. 32, 33 \ -r ^ , 



Sarciophorus^ J l L. tectus. 



Lobipluvia, Bonap. Compt. Rend, xliii. p. 418 (1856) L. malabaricus. 



Xiphidiopterus, -\ rL. albiceps. 



Sarcogrammus, V Reichenb.fide Bonap. Compt. Rend, xliii. pp. 418, 419 (1856) < L. indicus. 



Tylibyx, J ^L.melanocephalus. 



The Wattled Lapwings have shared no better fate than their cousins in the hands of 

 the great genus-splitters Reichenbach and Bonaparte. 



The only Wattled Lapwing known to Brisson or Linneus was the Grey-flanked 



2 A 



