(EDICNEMUS. 



75 



them. The variations being more or less geographical, the extremes are regarded as sub- 

 specifically distinct. 



Charadrius oedicnemus, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 151 (1758) ; Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 



Pluvialis major, Brisson, Orn. v. p. 76 (1760). 



Charadrius scolopax, Gmelin, Reise Russl. iii. p. 87 (1774). 



Charadrius illyricus, Piller, It. Poseg. Sclav, p. 26 (1783). 



Otis cedicnemus {Linn.), Latham, Gen. Syn. Suppl. i. p. 290 (1787). 



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



Pedoa oedicnemus (Linn.), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. &c. Brit. Mus. p. 28 (1816). 



Oedicnemus griseus, Koch, Syst. baier. Zool. i. p. 266 (1816). 



OEdicnemus europseus, Vieillot, N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxiii. p. 230 (1818). 



Oidicnemus bellonii, Fleming, Brit. Anim. p. 114 (1828). 



255 (1766). Synonymy. 



Plates.— Daub. PI. Enl. no. 919 ; Gould, Birds Gt. Brit. iv. pi. 35 ; Dresser, Birds of Europe, Literature. 



vii. pi. 512 (immature) '. 

 Habits. — Seebohm, British Birds, ii. p. 596. 

 Eggs. — Seebohm, British Birds, pi. 21. figs. 6, 7. 



The European Stone- Curlew requires several characters to diagnose it from its eight Specific 

 congeners. The first character, breast conspicuously streaked,, disposes of four of them, characters. 

 Two more are at once rejected by the second character, a distinct pale narrow band, outside 

 which is a dark band, across the wing between the lesser and greater coverts. The two 

 remaining species may be excluded by the character greater loing-coverts tipped with white. 

 (E. vermiculatus is also excluded by the absence of the transverse vermiculations on the 

 mantle, scapulars, and tertials 2 which characterize the African bird. (E. grallarius is also 



1 Dresser (' Birds of Europe,' vii. p. 402) states that the young are larger than the adults, and have the 

 central tail-feathers less boldly marked. There cannot be any doubt that he is wrong on both points. 

 Young in first plumage are smaller than adults, and have the central tail-feathers barred to the base, besides 

 having traces of bars on the scapulars and tertials ; these bars disappear with age, until only two are left at 

 the end of the central tail-feathers. Dresser's alleged figure of the adult bird is obviously that of a young 

 bird in first plumage, with the pale buff bar across the wing-coverts concealed in a mysterious manner by the 

 scapulars. 



2 The quills are divisible into three groups — -primaries, secondaries, and tertials — which often differ from 

 each other in pattern of colour to a remarkable extent. The old ornithologists appear to have assumed that 

 the primaries were attached to the phalanges or digits (hence sometimes called digital quills), the secondaries 

 to the cubitus (hence the term cubital quills), and the tertials to the humerus (hence the term humeral 

 quills). Some modern ornithologists assume that the primaries are always attached to the ulna, and the 

 secondaries and tertials to the pinion, and therefore that there are no such things as tertials, which they 

 call innermost secondaries. It seems to me that these ornithologists are wrong both in their conclusions and 

 in their facts. Even supposing that their assumptions were true, it would be no reason whatever for ignoring 

 the differences between the secondaries and tertials, which is quite as great as that between the primaries 

 and secondaries. But I have the best authority for denving the truth of these assumptions. It appears 



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