GRALL^. 



Fam. DROMADIDiE. 



Bill moderately long, stout, with the gonys-angle much pronounced. Legs long. Toes 

 much webbed ; hind toe present and well developed. 



Genus DEOMAS*. 

 Bill longer than the head, stout, the commissure straight ; the culmen curved from the 

 middle, and the upper mandible vaulted ; gonys very long, with the gonys-angle pronounced 

 and near the base ; nostrils oval, and pierced through the bill. Wings moderately long, with 

 the 1st quill the longest. Tail short and rounded. Legs long ; the tarsus scutellate, and more 

 than twice the length of the middle toe ; outer toe long, anterior toes connected for nearly half 

 their length by a web, and continued as a narrow membrane along the edges ; middle claw pecti- 

 nated at the tip. 



DEOMAS AEDEOLA. 



(THE CRAB-PLOVER.) 



Dromas ardeola, Paykull, Ilomell, Ac. Vet. Stockholm, p. 1S8, pi. 8 (1805); Blyth, Cat. 



B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 276 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 270 ; 



Heuglin, Ibis, 1856, p. 346, et Om. N.Ost-Afr. ii. p. 1043 (1873) ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. 



xxi. p. 352 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. hi. p. 658 (1864) ; Layard, B. of S. Afr. p. 372 (1867) ; 



Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 166 ; Newton, t. c. p. 351 ; Blanford, Zool. Abyssinia, p. 432 (1870) ; 



Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 472 ; Van der Hoeven, Annotationes de Bromade ardeola, 



Nov. Act. Acad. L.-C. Nat.-Cur. vol. xxxiii. (1868), p. 281 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, 



p. 234, et 1874, p. 293, et 1876, p. 464, et 1879, viii. (List Ind. B.), p. 112 et p. 381 ; 



id. Nests and Eggs, hi. p. 584 (1875) ; Legge, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 220, et 1876, p. 246 ; 



Butler, ibid. 1877, p. 212, et 1878, vii. p. 186. 

 Tringa, sp.1, Salt, Travels Abyssinia, App. iv. p. 49 (1814). 

 Erodia amphilensis, Salt, Trav. Abyssinia, App. iv. p. 61, pi. (1814) ; Jardine & Selby, 111. 



Orn. ii. pi. 75 (letterpress). 

 Ammoptila charadroides, Jerdon, Madr. Journ. 1840, xii. p. 216. 

 Abyssinian Erody, Lath. Gen. Hist. pi. 149 (1824); Drome Ardeole, Temm. PL Col. pi. 362 ; 



Pied Erodia, Jard. & Selby ; Sand-Plover, Jerdon, Madr. Journ. ; Crabcatcher of some. 



Hanker, Arabic. 



Adult male and female (Ceylon). Length 15-7 to 16-2 inches ; wing 8-2 to 8-5 ; tail 2-75 to 3'0 ; tarsus 3-6 to 4-0 ; 



bare tibia 1-4 to 1-6 ; middle toe and claw 1-7 to 1-85 ; bill to gape 2-9 to 3'0. 

 Iris dark brown; bill black; legs and feet pale bluish leaden or light greyish blue, claws black. 



* This singular genus, the only one of its family, is perhaps the most perplexing form among all the Grallse. 

 Blyth and Layard follow Schlegel in considering it allied to the Terns, the former stating that its young plumage was 

 that of the Sterninae ; but in this he is scarcely correct. Bonaparte held that it was close to the Oystercatchers ; and more 

 recently Van der Hoeven has proved that in its anatomy it is close to Hcematopus, which species I find it much resembles 

 in habits. In its nidification and eggs, however, it has affinities with the Shearwaters ; and these anomalous character- 

 istics induce me to place it in a family of itself. Its resemblance to the (Edicnemidae is, in my opinion, only superficial. 



