HERONS GENERALLY. 175 
run with great swiftness; their heads are thick, and 
their eyes large, dark, and placed far back in the head ; 
the bill is short, with the basal half soft, but the outer 
half becomes abruptly thick, and is often obsoletely 
notched, so as closely to resemble that of the pigeon 
family, which, in the rasorial circle, appears to represent 
the great order of waders. 
_ (197.) The following genera are the most prominent 
types :— The oyster-catchers are rather large and strong 
birds, marked with black and white ; and their principal 
food is supposed to be oysters and other shellfish. One 
species alone belongs to Europe, the others are natives 
of South America and Australia. The turnstone (Strep- 
silus) is at once recognised by a short stout bill, rather 
turned upwards: the name is derived from the habit 
it pussesses of turning up stones on the sea-shore, to 
feed upon the marine insects concealed beneath. The 
couriers ( Tachydromus Ill.), although confined to the 
Old World, seem to be very widely distributed: one 
species occasionally visits Europe, and has twice been 
shot in England ; the others, four or five in number, 
come from the African deserts and the sandy districts 
of India ; they are closely united to the Pratincoles, or 
swallow-plovers, forming the genus Glareola. These latter — 
have their wings very long, their bills short, and their 
tails generally forked ; they are small birds, and fly with 
great celerity. Our beautiful lapwing forms a typical 
example of the subgenus Vanellus. The true plovers 
(Charadrias) form a numerous group, very elegantly 
although not richly coloured, and dispersed, with little 
or no variation of form, over the whole world. The 
feet, as in the spur-winged plovers, are only three-toed, | 
and the wings are much pointed ; sometimes there is 
a slight membrane between the outer and the middle 
toe, but this is usually wanting. We have two elegant 
little species on the British coast, and some others occur 
in Southern Europe. The longshanks (Himantopus) 
have been placed in this group, but we believe they belong 
to the Tringide: whatever their true station may be, 
