CHAPTER XVII. 



Genus HIMANTOPUS. 



Diagnosis. Totaninje tarsis totis reticularis et longissimis (digitis mediis duplo longioribus). 



Nearest 

 allies. 



Generic 

 characters. 



The genus Himantopus contains eleven species, and embraces the Stilts, the Avocets, and the 

 Peruvian Stilt and the Banded Avocet, which form the connecting-links between them. 



This genus of birds is remarkably homogeneous and well differentiated from all allied 

 genera, and contains species so closely related to each other, that there can be no possible 

 reason for subdividing it in the way which has been adopted by most ornithologists. 



It is difficult to say to which genera Himantopus is nearest related. The softness of 

 the plumage resembles that of Phalaropus ; but this is probably an evidence of analogy 

 rather than of affinity. The delicate reticulation of the tarsus is similar to that of the 

 bar-tailed species of Charadrius, to which, in spite of the dissimilarity of the bill, the genus 

 may possibly be more nearly allied. The eleven species included in Himantopus may be 

 diagnosed from all the other species of the family Charadriidae by the combination of three 

 characters. Each of these is found in many other species of the family, but no species 

 belonging to it combines all three, except the eleven species which constitute the genus 

 Himantopus. These three characters are a long bill and a long and reticulated tarsus. 

 The genus may therefore be diagnosed as follows : — 



Charadriidae having the tarsus covered all over with a network of fine hexagonal 

 reticulations, having more than three fourths of the bill (measured from the frontal feathers) 

 beyond the nasal orifice, and having the tarsus at least twice the length of the middle toe. 



Synonymy of the Genus Himantopus. 



Type. 

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



p. 256 (1766) H. avocetta. 



Himantopus, Brisson, Orn. v. p. 34 (1760) H. melanopterus. 



Avocetta, Brisson, Orn. vi. p. 538 (1760) H. avocetta. 



Macrotarsus, Lacepede, Mem. de I'Inst. iii. p. 518 (1801) H. melanopterus. 



Hypsibates, Nitssch, Ersch u. Grub. Encyct. xvi. p. 150 (1827) . . . . H. melanopterus. 



Leptorhynchus, Dubus, Mag. Zool. v. pi. 45 (1835) H. pectoralis. 



Cladorhynchus, Gray, List Gen. B. p. 69 (1840) H. pectoralis. 



