18 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
bre, none; ribs articulating with sternum, 15-16; coracoids slightly 
overlapping at their external articulation; metasternum 4-notched; 
hallux absent; thigh-muscle formula, ABXY + or BXY +; caudo- 
ilio-femoralis muscle with iliac head present (Eidicnemus superciharis 
and CE. bistriatus) or absent (in genus Burhinus) ; propatagialis 
longus muscle present; nasal glands small or large; nares Impervious; 
pterylosis essentially charadriine; af tershaft present; oil gland tufted; 
powder-downs absent; fifth remex absent (aquincubital). ; 
The C&dicnemi present points of relationship with the Otides (Bus- 
tards), with which they agree in their holorhinal nostrils, but from 
which they differ in the following characters: 
Gdicnemi. Otides. 
Dorsal vertebrae .....----2-2-- 22 eee eee e eee opisthocoelous. _ heterocoelous. 
NALORD aistavsesvoiowenrn icine s SER AC SR eiai aie nella impervious. pervious. 
Oil gland........ 2.22.2 eee eee eee eee eee present. absent. 
Nasal glands......------- sniospi pti sne aerial neictevene large. small. 
Propatagialis longus muscle.....-.------------- present. absent. 
Caudo-ilio-femoralis muscle with iliac head. .... usually present. absent. 
Digestive system.............----- 202-2 eee eee Charadriine. Gruine. 
From the Charadrii the (dicnemi differ in absence of basiptery- 
goid processes and occipital foramina, holorhinal nostrils, and over- 
lapping coracoids. 
Family @DICNEMID. 
THE THICK-KNEES. 
=Cidicnemine Gray, List Gen. Birds, 1840, 64. 
=CEdicnemide ScuaTER and Savin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, viii, 142.—Sciatzr, 
Ibis, 1880, 408.—Batrp, Brewer, and Ripegway, Water Birds N. Am., i, 
1884, 108.—STEINEGER, Standard Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 112, in text.—Smarrz, 
Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv, 1896, ix, 2; Hand-list, i, 1899, xvi, 172.—Brp- 
DARD, Struct. and Classif. Birds, 1898, 345.—Satvin and Gopmav, Biol. 
Centr.-Am., Aves, iii, 1903, 338.—Know ton, Birds of the World, 1909, 49, 
380. 
=Cidicnemidae FURBRINGER, Unters. Morph. Syst. Vég., ii, 1888, 1223. 
=Cidicnemididae Gapow, Classif. Vertebr., 1898, 35. 
=Burhinide MatHews, Birds of Australia, ili, pt. 4, Dec. 31, 1918, 342. 
Genus CEDICNEMUS Temminck. 
Gidicnemus TemmincK, Man. d’ Orn., 1815, 321. (Type, by tautonymy, Char- 
adrius edicnemus Linnzus.) : 
Fedoa Leacn, Syst. Cat. Mam. and Birds Brit. Mus., 1816, 28. (Type, Chara~ 
drius edicnemus Linneus.) 
Very large terrestrial Limicole (wing 205-273 in American species) 
with nostril in anterior portion of the broad nasal fosss:, tarsus. 
two and a half to nearly three times as long as middle toe without 
claw and covered all round with hexagonal scales, hallux absent, tail 
half as long as wing and graduated, and the plumage conspicuously 
streaked with pale buffy brown and dusky. 
