CHABADBIIDJE—CHABADRIIN^: PLOVER. 
597 
inosculating families in the vicinity of Limicolce and Alectorides, of uncertain position. The 
largest of these is the Bustard family, Otididce, which connects LimicolcB and Alectorides so 
perfectly, that its position has long wavered between these two orders ; the balance of evidence 
favors its reference to the latter. The typical families are Charadriidos and Scolopaddcs. 
38. Family CHARADRIID.^ : Plover. 
This is a large and impor- 
tant family of nearly a hun- 
dred species, of all parts of 
the world. Its limits are not 
settled, there being a few 
forms sometimes referred here, 
sometimes made the types of 
distinct families. The Glare- 
oles {Glareolidce) are a re- 
markable Old World form, 
like long-legged swallows, 
with a cuckoo's bill ; the tail 
is forked ; there are four toes ; 
the wings are extremely long 
and pointed ; the tarsi are 
scutellate ; the middle claw 
denticulate. The Coursers 
(Cursoriince) are another Old 
World type, near the Bus- 
tards, of one or two genera 
and less than ten species. In both of these the gape of the mouth is longer than in the true 
plovers ; the hind toe, as usual for this family, is absent in the Coursers. The thick-knees, 
{(Edicnemina:) are more plover-like birds, with one exception belonging to the Old World, 
comprising about eight species of the genera (Edicnemus and Esacus ; they are related to 
the Bustards, and most pluvialiue birds appear to fall in the 
54. Subfamily CHARADRIIN/E : True Plover. 
Toes generally three, the hinder absent (excepting, among our forms, Squatarola, Vanellus, 
and Aplinzci) ; tarsus reticulate, longer than the middle toe ; toes with a basal web (cleft in 
Aphriza) ; tibiae naked below. Bill of moderate length, much shorter or not longer than the 
head, shaped somewhat like that of a Pigeon, with a convex horny terminal portion, con- 
tracted behind this ; the nasal fossae rather short and wide, filled with soft skin in which the 
nostrils open as a slit, not basal, and perforate. Gape very short, reaching a little beyond base 
of culmen. Wings long and pointed, reaching, when folded, to or beyond the end of the tail, 
and sometimes spurred; crissal feathers long and full; tail short, generally nearly even and of 
12 feathers; body plump; neck short and thick; head large, globose, sloping rapidly to the 
small base of the bill, usually fully feathered. Size moderate or small. 
Our species (excepting Aphriza, if really belonging here) are very closely related, and will 
be readily recognized by the foregoing characters. There are in all perhaps sixty species. 
The most singular of them is the Anarhynchus frontalis, in which the bill is bent sideways. 
TJiinornis zelandim of Mew Zealand, Phegornis mitchelU and Oreophilus iotanirostris of Chili, 
are peculiar forms. Species of CJiettusia, LohivaneUus and Hoplopterus have fleshy wattles, 
or a tubercle, often developed into a spine, on the wing, or both ; some of these, and others, 
Fig. 415. — A Plover, the European Lapwing, reduced. (From Dixon. ) 
