OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 109 



Family CBDICNEMID^. Genus GEdicnbmus. 



STONE CURLEW. 



(EDICNEMUS CEEPITANS.— Temmwc^i;. 



Charadrius cedicnemus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 255 (1766). 



CEdicnemus crepitans, Temm. ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 77 (1852) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. 

 B.ii. p. 596 (1884) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 251 (1893) ; Seebohm, Col. 

 Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 90, pi. 23 (1896). 



CEdicnemus scolopax (S. G. Gmel.), Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 401, pi. 512 (1876) ; 

 Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4 iii. p. 225 (1884) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxxi. (1895). 



CEdicnemus oedicnemus (Linn.), Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 4 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 127 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. — British .• The Stone Curlew is a summer 

 visitor to the heaths and wolds of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and 

 Cambridgeshire, southwards through Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Bucks, Oxford- 

 shire, Berks, Wilts, Dorset, Hants, Sussex, and Kent. Elsewhere it can only be 

 regarded as an accidental visitor chiefly on migration, although it has been known 

 to breed in Worcestershire, Eutland, and Notts, and a few are known to winter 

 in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. It has once occurred in Scotland, and once 

 or twice at the mouth of the Tyne, during winter, whilst six or eight examples 

 have been detected in Ireland chiefly at that season. Foreign : Western Palae- 

 arctic region. It breeds south of the Baltic in the west of Europe, and of lat. 

 50° in the east. It is a resident throughout the basin of the Mediterranean, the 

 Canary Islands, and Madeira, but is only a summer visitor to France, Holland, 

 Belgium, Germany (but according to Hartert it does not breed in East Prussia), 

 and South Eussia. It is also a resident throughout North Africa, but much more 

 numerous in winter than in summer. It is a summer migrant to Eussian Tur- 

 kestan and West Siberia as far north as lat. 48^, but a resident in Palestine, 

 Asia Minor, and Persia, and a winter visitor to the Eed Sea basin and India. 



Allied forms. — CEdicnemus crepitans indicus, a resident race inhabiting 

 Beloochistan, India, Ceylon, and Burma. Its specific distinctness is barred by 

 the presence, according to Seebohm, of intermediate forms in Persia, Asia Minor, 

 and throughout North Africa. Differs from the Common Stone Curlew in having 

 a shorter wing (8 inches to 9 inches, against 9 inches to 10 inches in the European 

 race), in having white patches almost invariably on the third primary, and in 



