152 



CHAEADEIUS. 



M-4 



CHARADRIUS FRONTALIS. 



WBY-BILLJEB PLOVER. 



Diagnosis. Charadrius rostro dextrorso curvato. 



Synonymy. 



Literature. 



Variations. The alleged variations of this species are supposed to be myths. 



AnarhyDchus frontalis, Quoy §• Gaimard, Voy. Astrol., Zool. i. p. 252 (1833). 

 Thinornis frontalis (Quoy fy Gaim.), Gray, Genera of Birds, iii. p. 545 (1848). 

 Anarhynchus albifrons, Schlegel, Handleid. i. p. 435 (1857). 

 Charadrius frontalis (Quoy £f Gaim.), Gray, Ibis, 1862, p. 234. 

 Haematopus frontalis (Quoy &; Gaim.), Finsch, Journ. Orn. 1867, p. 346. 



Plates. — Harting, Ibis, 1869, pi. viii. 



Habits. — Buller, Birds of New Zealand, p. 216 '. 



Eggs. — Harting, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, pi. lx. fig. 11. 



1 The account of the Wry-billed Plover is full of blunders and omissions. Gray's misstatement that the 

 wry bill was accidental is corrected (it is quite perceptible in the young in down, Newton, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1870, p. 673) ; but a story that the pectoral band is broader on the right than on the left side of the breast is 

 attempted to be explained by the laws of protective selection ! The fact that the male has a black band over 

 the white forehead is not mentioned, nor does it appear to have occurred to the writer that there may or 

 may not be any difference between summer and winter plumage. The black pectoral band is said to be 

 duller in the female than in the male, an assertion contradicted by sexed skins from Haast, Wilson Saunders, 

 &c. in my collection. Young are said to have no pectoral band, but in a young bird in my collection the 

 pectoral band is represented by a grey patch on each side of the breast. 



