176 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIBOS. 
they are certainly some of the most singular birds in the 
family ; and, by the excessive length of their legs, they 
no doubt represent the flamingos ; we know but of three 
species. At the end, or rather at the commencement, 
of this group, we may place tlie thick-kneed bustards 
(CEdicnemus) ; since they are obviously allied to the 
Charadriadfe, or plovers, on one side, and to the 
Ardeadee, by means of the aberrant cranes, on the other. 
All the species have been hitherto confined, to the Old 
World; butanother, described in this volume, has recently 
been discovered in the interior of Tropical America. 
These birds, while they exhibit a strong affinity to the 
typical plovers, have many points of resemblance to the 
cranes ; so that we can agree with Mr. Vigors in con- 
sidering Wdivnemus to “have an affinity with the earlier 
groups of tlie Gruidai,” forming part of our Ardeadce ; 
and that they thus connect the present family with that. 
(igS.) The family of TniNciniE contains the most 
typical waders, as the snipes, wowlcocks, and sandpipers. 
This group is distinguished from all others by the 
great length, the slenderness, and the flexibility of the 
bill, no less than by the delicacy of their kgs, and the 
smallness of the hinder toe. Like the plovers, they are 
endowed with great powers of flight and of locomotion ; 
since they run with vast celerity, and have the faculty, 
in part, both of diving and swimming : the bill is even 
longer than the plover’s ; but instejid of being divided, 
as it were, into two portions, as in those birds, the 
culmen is uninterruptedly straight, and the upper man- 
dible is not suddenly bent downwards. The sandpiper 
or the snipe will give an accurate idea of that general 
formation which belongs to the whole family. Their 
geographic dispersion is as wide as their locomotive 
powers are great. The shores of every part of the 
world abound with sandpipers and curlews ; and the 
European whimbril (Nunienius Phmopm) is even 
said to have been detected on the coasts of New 
Holland. 
( 1 99') The genera comprised in tliis family will now be 
