THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Bill stout and short, less than middle toe without claw ; metatarsus short ; 
size small. Genus Cirrepidesmus ; species C. mongoluSf bicinctuSf 
and pyrrhothorax=atrifrons. 
BiU long and slender, longer than the middle toe ; metatarsus long, twice 
as long as the bill, or more than twice as long as the middle toe ; size 
medium. Genus Eupoda or Eupodella ; species E, asiatica and 
E. vereda. 
Little critical work on the generic dispositions of these small Dotterels 
has been done by British workers, but I find that Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 
in the “Water Birds of North America” {Me7n. Mus. Cmrip. Zool. {Harv.), 
Vol. XII.), Vol. I., 1884, commented upon the extralimital forms when defining 
the genera they adopted. 
Thus on p. 171, dealing with the genus Podasocys Coues (Type G. 7nontanus 
Townsend) they wrote : “At least one Old World species, Charadrius veredus 
Gould, seems to be strictly congeneric. We have carefully compared spe- 
cimens, and can find no difference whatever in the details of structure. The 
C. asiaticus Pallas is said to be a near relation of C. veredus, and may also 
belong to this genus.” 
In my opinion C. veredus is easily differentiated by the exposed portion 
of the tibia being equal to the middle toe, while in P. 7nontanus it is 
much shorter, and in the latter the legs are also shorter and stouter and the 
metatarsus more regularly reticulated. 
Regarding Ochthodrmnus, on p. 168 they note : “ An exotic species, 
which seems to be strictly congeneric with 0. unlsonius is the Charadrius 
geoffroyi Wagler, which agrees minutely in all the details of structure, except 
that the legs are decidedly longer ” ; and they might have added “the toes are 
also proportionately shorter ; the wing is longer.” Their generic diagnosis 
(p. 129) read “ Ochthodro 7 nus. BiU very large (as long as, or longer than, 
middle toe) ; the terminal half of the culmen much arched ; the base of the 
gonys forming a decided angle ; tarsus about one and a half times to nearly 
twice as long as middle toe.” 
I have alread}^ pointed out that by means of the proportion of the bill 
to the middle toe the two can be easily separated. 
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