776 Additions to the Ornithology of Nepal. [Dec. 



Tvpe Carvdnaca Grisea, nobis. CEdicnemus Magnirostris, Hard- 

 wickii ? 



Specific character. 



Carvdnac. Above, a skv ffrev : below, together with the frontal 

 zone, white. Brows, ear-coverts and mustaches, blackish. Shoulders, 

 false wing, and coverts next them, together with the quills and tip 

 of the tail, blackish. Wings and tail irregularly but largely banded 

 with white, and both white for the most part, below. Length of the 

 bird 20 inches, width 36, weight 1^ lbs. 



The marks. This species inhabits the Bengal Presidency, very 

 generally, being always found on the wide sandy banks of the larger 

 rivers during the cold months of the year. It migrates to Tibet in sum- 

 mer, and passes over N6pal on its way to and fro. Its food consists 

 of crabs and other hard- shelled fish. Its intestines are from 22 

 to 25 inches long, with two caeca, each Z\ inches, placed at 5 inches 

 from the lower end of the gut. The stomach is a strong triturating 

 gizzard, fitted with the aid of gravel, to grind the hard parts of the 

 bird's food. 



Manners cannot well be more dissimilar than those of the desert 

 and ripuary Carvdnacs : the former adhering to dry arid plains, very 

 much like the Indian Bustards* ; and the latter, as exclusively to the 

 beds of rivers. Whoever will refer to the English Cuvier, (Aves. 

 III. 307,) will perceive that our species is probably not unknown to 

 science. Is it not the CEdicnemus Magnirostris of Hardwicke ? 



At the place quoted, two other allied species are cited, and these 

 three may constitute the new genus or sub-genus Carvdnaca, distin- 

 guished from CEdicnemus by totally different manners, and by a truly 

 cultirostral bill. 



It were well, indeed, if all new genera rested on diversities so 

 marked as these — the manners so admirably tallying with the struc- 

 ture of that grand instrument of sustentation, the rostrum. Our 

 genus, moreover, appears to me to constitute a remarkable and dis- 

 tinct link of connexion between the Ardeidce, by means of Mycteria 

 and the Charadriadce through CEdicnemus. And it would, in my 

 judgment, be quite as consonant to nature to confound CEdicnemus 

 with Charadrius, as Carvdnaca (nobis) with CEdicnemus. 



The only consequence of Hardwicke's species proving to be the 

 same with ours, ought therefore to be — not the rejection of the new 

 genus, but — the merging of my specific name of Grisea in his of 

 Magnirostris : unless indeed, the latter term be not held to have lost 



* It is frequently called by us the Bastard Florican. 



