Family — G LAREOLIDiE. 
The Coursers and Pratincoles are combined together in a family GlareoUdce, 
which again is coequal with the suborder Cursorii in the Catalogue of the 
Birds in the British Museum. They differ from Charadriine birds in the 
nature of their biUs and their legs and feet. 
In their bills there is no groove in the upper mandible, such as is seen 
in these, but instead is a shallow depression which has the nostrils placed in its 
anterior portion : the bill is also more or less broad at its base and tapering 
to a point : the linear nostrils are parallel to and lie along the outer edge. 
The legs are covered both before and behind with regular scutellations. 
In their other characters much variation is expressed, some having long 
bills, others very short; short wings and very long wings also appear; short 
rounded tails and very long deeply-forked tails occur, while some species have 
very long legs and others just as abnormally short ones. The middle claw 
sometimes shows pectinations, but not always, as has been often stated. 
The critical examination of the whole of the species of the family led to 
the discovery that the “ Australian Dotterel ” is a very aberrant form, and 
was not a Plover, as had been generally suggested. As an example of the 
folly of lumping species into one genus, can be cited my action in classing 
this species under Charadrius in the Novitates Zoologicae, Vol. XVIII. 
At that time, imbued with the idea that by minimising differences better 
results would be obtained by the use of large groups as genera, I concluded 
that as the chief difference seemed to be in the nature of the metatarsal 
covering, this species could be easily lumped in with the other varied forms 
classed under Charadrius. The knowledge that close examination caused 
separation of such heterogeneous aggregations into many narrow but natural 
groups and led the way to a later phylogenetic classification, induced the 
criticism of every species. In this case it has unearthed the lumping of this 
form among the Plovers and caused its transference to the present suborder. 
Details will be fully given under the genus-name later. 
A short review of the genera will to some extent explain the peculiarities 
of the assemblage grouped in this family. 
The genus Cursorius has a comparatively long bill, short wings, long legs, 
small feet, no hind toe, middle claw pectinated on its inner edge, tail short and 
square. The depression in the bill is less than half the length of the culmen. 
