70 



(EDICNEMUS. 



Other ge- 

 neric cha- 

 racters. 



How dis- 

 tinguished 

 from the 

 Bustards. 



Subgenus 

 Esaetis. 



The most distinctive character of the genus (Edicnemus — one that is unaffected by difference 

 of age, sex, or season, and is common to every species and subspecies of the group — is 

 to be found in the distribution of the black markings on the tail-feathers. This is 

 apparently one of the oldest characters of the genus, inherited from the ancestral species 

 of Stone-Curlew, and handed down unchanged during the many centuries required to 

 differentiate it into a dozen Stone-Curlews (a period which, there is reason to suppose, 

 was not less than a hundred thousand years). The distribution of the white patches on 

 the quills is equally characteristic. 



The Stone-Curlews appear to be very closely allied to the Bustards ; but the middle 

 toe is united to both the others by a very distinct web at the base, which is not the 

 case with the Bustards. 



Two species are generally placed in a different genus [Esacus) 1 , chiefly on account 

 of their aberrant habits — one frequenting the banks of rivers, and the other living for the 

 most part on the sea-shore ; but they possess no characters to warrant such a separation, 

 nor are these two species the only members of the genus which prefer mud-banks to dry 

 plains as feeding-grounds. There is no reason to suppose that the dispersal, isolation, and 

 differentiation of the Stone-Curlews, which are steppe species, happened after the sepa- 

 ration of the river-bank or sea-shore species. 



Synonymy of the Genus (Edicnemus. 



Determina- 

 tion of the 

 type. 



(Edicnemus, Temminck, Man. d'Orn. p. 322 (1815) . . . 

 Burhimis, Illiger, apud Lesson, Traite d'Orn. p. 547 (1831) . 

 Carvanaca, Hodgson, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. v. p. 775 (1836) 

 Esacus, Lesson, apud Gray, Genera of Birds, hi. p. 535 (1844) 

 Ortkorhamphus, Salvadori, Cat. Ucc. Borneo, p. 312 (1874) . 



Type. 

 (E. crepitans. 



(E. magnirostris. 



(E. recurvirostris. 



(E. magnirostris. 



(E. magnirostris. 



The Stone-Curlew was placed by Linneus in his genus Charadrius, which also 

 included the three-toed species of the genera Vanellus and Lobivanellus, together with the 

 three-toed section of the genus Himantopus. 



Brisson retained the Stone-Curlew in his synonymous genus ; but turned out the 

 species belonging to Himantopus, and changed the name of the original genus to Phivialis. 



Latham placed the Stone-Curlew in the genus Otis ; but in 1815 Temminck provided 

 the genus (Edicnemus for its reception. 



Temminck having adopted the specific name given to the European Stone-Curlew by 

 Linneus for his new genus, that species must of necessity be regarded as the type. 



1 It is remarkable that the genus Esacus should have been so universally adopted. There never was a 

 worse genus, or one the recognition of which is more mischievous. To break up a well-defined genus like 

 (Edicnemus destroys the value of all reasoning based upon the geographical distribution of genera. The alleged 

 differences in the sternum of the two groups (Blasius. Journ. f. Orn. 1S84, p. 229) are probably exaggerated, or 

 are of little taxonomic value. 



