Genus— S Q U A T A R 0 L A . 
Squatarola Cuvier, Regne Anim., VoL I., p. 467, 
1816 Type S. squaiarola. 
Also spelt — 
Squaterola Kaup, Skizz Entwick-Gesch. Nat. Syst., p. 155, 1829. 
Sqatarola Gray, Genera Birds, Vol. III., pi. 145, 1847. 
Squatarolla Fritsch, Naturg. Vogel Europa’s, p. 323, 1870. 
Large Plovers with stout bills, long wings, short legs and strong feet. 
The bill is straight and stout, the dertrum much swollen and rounded, 
as long as the head ; the nostrils linear and placed in a groove. The wings 
are long, and the first primary is longest. Tail rounded. Metatarsus short 
and covered both in front and behind with hexagonal scales. Outer and 
middle toes connected by a short web at the base. Minute hind-toe and 
claw present. 
The Pluvialine Waders have offered more trouble to the system atist than 
the Vanelline forms, as no ornamental spurs, wattles, or crests are found 
among them. 
The present species is the sole member of a genus consistently recognised 
as valid on account of the presence of a minute hind-toe and claw. Two other 
species apparently verj^ closely allied by reason of size and coloration, have 
been dissociated from it, and by some workers lumped with a number of small, 
differently-coloured forms. A casual glance at such an assemblage points 
to the fallacious recognition of such structural features as a minute hind-^toe 
being of more value than colour, and it seems certain that in this group colour 
must be taken into consideration when generic values are discussed. 
To me the Pluvialine forms comprised in the genera Squatarola and 
Pluvialis, as I use them, stand apart from the other smaller forms classed in the 
Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum under JSgialitis, Ochthodrofnus, 
Eudro7niaSy etc. 
It is significant that when Seebohm included the majority of the 
Plovers under the single genus CJiaradrius, he admitted three subgeneric 
groups, viz. : — 
Pluviales : or typical Plovers and Dotterels. 
Uiaticulce : Ringed Plovers. 
CEgialophili : Sand -Plovers. 
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