242 CHARADRIIDiE, PLOVEE. 



ally of the mesozoic Arcliwopteryx. Some gigantic extinct birds belong in the 

 neighborhood of the rails and coots. Decidedly rail-like and better known birds 

 are the jacanas, Parridce, noted for the length of the toes, and especially of the 

 claws ; they have a sharp spur on the wing. There are less than 12 species, usually 

 referred to several genera, of various parts of the world. Finally, the sun-birds, 

 HelwrnithidcE, are a small but remarkable family of one or two genera and about 

 four species of tropical America, Africa, and southern Asia. They have been 

 classed, on account of their lobate feet and a certain general resemblance, with the 

 grebes ; but the feet are like those of coots, and their whole structure shows that they 

 belong with the ralliform birds. This completes an enumeration of the Alectorides. 



Suborder LIMIOOL^. Shore Birds. (See p. 239.) 



Family CHARADRIID-ffi. Plover. 



This is a large and important family of nearly a himdred species, of all parts of 

 the world. Its limits are not settled, there being a few forms sometimes referred 

 here, sometimes made the types of distinct families. I exclude from it the genera 

 Thinocorus, Attagis, and Chionis, noted on a preceding page. The glareoles 

 {Glareolinw if not GlareoUdce) are a remarkable Old World form, like long-legged 

 swallows, with a cuckoo's bill ; the tail is forked ; there are four toes ; the wings are 

 extremely long and pointed ; the tarsi are scutellate ; the middle claw denticulate. 

 The coursers, Cursoriinm, are another Old World type, near the bustards, of one 

 or two genera and less than ten species. In both of these the gape of the mouth is 

 longer than in the true plovers ; the hind toe, as usual for this family, is absent in 

 the coursers. The thick-knees, CEdicnemino}, are truljr plover-like birds, with one 

 exception belonging to the Old World, comprising about eight species of the genera 

 CEdicnemus and Esacus. All the remaining pluvialine birds appear to fall in the 



Subfamily CHABADEIINJE . True Plover. 



Toes generallj^ three, the hinder absent (excepting, among our forms, gen. 189, 

 193) ; tarsus reticulate, longer than the middle toe ; toes with a basal web ; tibise 

 naked below. Bill of moderate length, much shorter or not longer than the head, 

 shaped somewhat like that of a pigeon, with a convex horny terminal portion, con- 

 tracted behind this ; the nasal fosste rather short and wide, filled with soft skin in 

 which the nostrils open as a slit, not basal, and perforate. Gape very short, reaching 

 little beyond base of culmen. Wings long and pointed, reaching, when folded, to or 

 beyond the end of the tail, and sometimes spurred ; crissal feathers long and full ; 

 tail short, generallj' nearly even and of 12 feathers ; body plump ; neck short and 

 thick ; head large, globose, sloping rapidly to the small base of the bill, usually 

 fully feathered. Size moderate or small. 



Our species (excepting Aphriza, if really belonging here) are very closely related, 

 and will be readily recognized by the foregoing characters. There are in all perhaps 

 sixty species. The most singular of them is the Anarhynchus frontalis, in which 

 the bill is bent sideways. Thinornis zdandice of New Zealand, Phegornis mitcliellii 

 and Oreoxjhilus totanirostris of Chili, are peculiar forms. Species of Chettusia, 

 Lobivanellus, and Hoplopterus have fleshy wattles, or a tubercle, often developed into 

 a spine, on the wing, or both ; some of these, and others, are crested. These are 



[Note. The genus Grus. inadvertently nnnibered 22;i in tlie Key, will be foiind next after genu;? 238.] 



