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Genus HOPLOPTERUS. 



Pluvialis apud Brisson, Orn. v. p. 84 (1760). 



Charadrius apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 256 (1766). 



Hqplqpterus, Bonaparte, Sagg. Distrib. Metod. An. Verteb. p. 56 (1831). 



Vanellus apud Swainson, B. of W. Afr. ii. p. 237(1837). 



Philomachus apud G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of B. p. 65 (1840). 



This small genus is represented only in tbe Palsearctic, Oriental, and Ethiopian Regions, one 

 species being found in the south-eastern portion of the Western Palsearctic Region. 



They are said to resemble the Lapwing very closely in their habits, but frequent marshy 

 and damp localities, especially the banks of streams and large rivers. They are active, but 

 peculiar and droll in their movements, being noisy and curious, usually meeting a stranger and 

 hovering over his head uttering their loud warning cry. Their flight is swift and vigorous, but 

 jerky and wavering. They feed on insects and mollusks, chiefly aquatic, as they obtain their 

 food on the banks of streams and on marshes. They wander about in pairs and small flocks, and 

 are said to be very pugnacious, frequently fighting with great ferocity, using the spurs with 

 which their wings are furnished as weapons of offence. Their nest is a mere depression in the 

 ground ; and their eggs, three or four in number, are spotted and blotched with olive-brown and 

 sooty blackish-brown on a greyish olivaceous, or on a warm clay-ochreous ground. 



Hoplopterus spihosus, the type of the genus, has the bill about as long as the head, straight, 

 moderately stout, the culmen straight to the end of the nasal sinus, then slightly raised, and 

 decurved to the tip, which is narrow, rounded, and sharp-edged ; gape-line straight ; nasal sinus 

 extending over two thirds of the length of the bill ; nostrils long, linear, lateral, subbasal ; 

 feathers on the hind crown elongated, forming a crest ; wings long, full, the third quill longest, 

 the first and fourth about equal, the second scarcely shorter, the inner secondaries comparatively 

 short ; wings armed at the carpus with a strong sharp spur ; tail rather long, even ; legs long, 

 slender, the tibia bare for half its length, tarsus scutellate ; toes moderately long, the hind toe 

 wanting; claws slender, slightly curved, rather obtuse, that on the middle toe dilated on the 

 inner edge. 



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