GLAREOLIDiE. 
the nostrils placed in its anterior portion, parallel to the outer edge of the 
mandible, which is angularly placed with relation to the culmen-ridge ; the 
anterior half of the culmen is long and decurved ; the under-mandible is 
straight, with the tip decurved and showing no gonydeal angle. 
Rhinoptilus is used for Coursers agreeing in most details with Cursorius, 
but are slighter-built birds with less-powerful bills which show a much less 
decurved tip, and a gonydeal angle is becoming apparent. In the genotype the 
middle claw is scarcely, often not at aU, pectinate. 
Stiltia is somewhat of a connecting link between the Coursers and Pratin- 
coles. It has the long legs of the former but the short bill of the latter, with 
very long wings like the latter, but a short tail. The bill is short, very 
broad at the base, the tip slightly decurved and sharp ; the claw on the 
middle toe very long, but not at all pectinated. Strangely, Sharpe in the 
Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XXIV., p. 27, classes 
Stiltia under his section “ Mid-claw pectinated along its inner margin,” but 
I can see no pectination whatever. 
Glareola has the exposed bill very short, the depression and culmen- 
ridge covered with feathers, so that only the nostrils are exposed ; the tip 
is very decurved and no gonydeal angle present; the wings are very long 
and the tail is long and very deeply forked ; the legs are short, and the 
toes and claws comparatively long, and a hind toe is present: the middle 
claw abnormally long and much pectinated. In the Catalogue of the Birds in 
the British Museum a number of species are classed under the generic name 
Galactochrysea. The correct spelling is Galachrysia (Bonaparte, Comptes 
Rendus Sci. (Paris), Vol. XLIII., p. 419, 1856), introduced for lactea and 
cinerea. These species are miniatures of Glareola, with a short, forked tail and 
form quite a distinct little group. With these, however, Sharpe associated 
Gkireola ocularis Verreaux {S. Afr. Quart. Journ., Vol. II., p. 80, 1833), but 
this species is a typical Glareola in size, coloration, and detail, save that it 
lacks the long, deeply-forked tail, having a short, slightly forked one. 
I would separate it as a new genus under the name SUBGLAREOLA, with 
G. ocularis Verreaux as type. 
An examination of the eggs of the species of this family in the British 
Museum, gives some interesting results which seem worthy of record. 
Cursorius lays an egg which is quite unlike that of Glareola, the former light- 
coloured, covered with light spots and scratchings, the latter darker coloured 
with bold black blotches. Rhinoptilus eggs agree with those of Glareola, 
though the bird is nearly related to Cursorius. Stiltia lays eggs which agree 
with those of Cursorius, though the bird has a greater resemblance to Glareola, 
but the long legs show its affinity is clearly with Cursorius. It wiU be 
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