237 
BLACK-BODIED LAPWING. 
Vanellus melasomus, Swains. 
PLATE XXVI. 
Head above, body beneath, and front of the throat and breast, 
black ; sides of the neck, breast, and collar round the neck, 
white ; tail black ; the base and covers white ; feet three- 
toed. 
Charadrius spinosus, Audorum, Syst. Avium, No. 10. — Pluvier 
amid du Senegal, PI. Enl. 801. (bad) Edwards, pi. 280. 
%. 2 . 
As a preliminary step to the arrangement of this 
hmily, we propose to restrict the genus Charadrius 
to those birds only whose wings are so much 
pointed that the first quill is always the longest, 
and from which the others gradually but rapidly 
diminish in length; this structure we consider as 
pre-eminently typical. All other species or forms 
not possessing it, w T e shall arrange at present under 
Vanellus; the sub-genera of which, however, we 
shall refrain from defining until we have discovered 
their circular succession, and consequently their true 
characters. 
The present species, heretofore arranged in the 
genus Charadrius , is separated from the types of that 
group by having the shoulders armed with a strong 
spur or spine, and by the different form of its wings ; 
the fourth quill of which is as long as the first. 
