PHEGOENIS. 



449 



Type. 

 Leptoscelis, Des Murs, Icon. Orn. pi. 41 (1840) {nee Leptoscelis, Haliday, 1833) P. tnitchelli. 



Phegornis, Gray, Genera of Birds, iii. p. 545 (1847) P. mitchelli. 



Prosobonia^ Bonap. Com.pt. Bend. xxxi. p. 562 (1850) P. leucoptera. 



Mc\i.vaov\\yz\cla.\>iS, Coues, Birds of the North-West,^.^0& (1874) P.cancellatus. 



The genus Phegornis has been particularly unfortunate in its synonymy ; each of the 

 three species has been made the type of a genus, and one of them has been provided with 

 as many as four genera before one could be found which had not been previously used for 

 some other genus in Zoology. The result is that no fewer than six genera have been 

 created for the reception of three birds 1 



The Chilian Sandpiper [Phegornis mitchelli), being the only species placed in the genus Determina- 

 by Eraser, must be regarded as the type. ^ypg_ 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



Australian Region. 



Christmas Island. 



Paumota Archipelago. 



Society Islands. 



Neotropical Region. 

 Chilian Subregion. 



J". ... P. CANCELLATUS. 

 . p. LEUCOPTERtrs. 



. . . . p. MITCHELLI. 



The area of distribution of the genus Phegornis is very limited, but it may be 

 regarded as, to all intents and purposes, continuous. Very little is known of the habits of 

 the three species which it contains, but the first two are probably shore-birds, whilst the 

 third is said to frequent the borders of lakes. None of the three species are migratory. 



The o-enus Phegornis may be regarded as Tropical, though one of the three species Climatic 

 which it contains is a resident in Temperate Regions. Their distribution is as follows : — 



distribution. 



Tropical Pacific Islands 

 Temperate South America 

 Species of Phegornis , 



2 

 1 

 — 3 



When the ancestors of the Charadriidse were dispersed by thePrse-Pliocene Glacial Epoch, ^^SJ'a- 

 which drove them out of the Arctic Region, and caused them to adopt migratory habits, or 

 to extend the range of their migrations, some of them must have wintered south of the 

 Line. Many species which now breed within the Arctic Circle still winter in the 

 tropics, but a few of their near allies gave up the habit of migration to become residents 

 of the southern hemisphere. If this change of habits occurred in some birds after the 



3 M 



