THE THICK-KNEES. 
127 
{Numoiius), but they are generally known by this title, and so 
^ '^LikTthe Bustards, the Thick-knees have a schizorhinal palate 
and holorhinal nostril, and share with theni anot.ier point, viz., 
the absence of the hind-toe, or hallux. There are, hovevcr, 
many anatomical characters in which the two 
and in many of these the Thick-knees show relationship with 
Ihe Plovers.^ In habits they are Bustard -1 ike in many respects, 
but their eggs arc more like those of the Plovers, and t ley 
""^There^'Se^fourgenera of Thick-knees, of which Burhtnus 
Esacus and Orihorhamphus Indian and Australian, while 
the genus (Edicnemus is found all over the temperate parts of 
the Palmarctic Region, and extends throughout Africa, India, 
and the Burmese countries. It is also found m America from 
Mexico to Amazonia and Peru. 
the true THICK-KNEES. GENUS OvDICNEMUS. 
CEdic?iemus, Temm. Man. dOrn. p. 321 (1815). 
Type, (E. adicnemns (Linn.). 
I. THE STONE-CURLEW. CEDICNEMUS CEDICNEMUS. 
Charadrius adicnemus, Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. p. 255 (1766). 
(Edicnemus crepitans, Macgill. Bnt. B. iv. p. 77 (1852), Seeb. 
Br. B. ii. p. 696, jil. xxi. figs. 6, 7 (18S4). 
fVdInjpmiLS scolopcix. Dresser, B. Bur. vii. p. 4 ^^? P* 5 ^^ 
11876)- B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 155 (1883); Saunders, 
ed Yarn Br. B. iii. p. 225 (1884) ; Saunders, Man. BrU. B. 
r, 't, c (1889) ; IdlforJ, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxxi. (1895). 
CJJicnemus \dicnemus, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 6. 
{Plate LX XVI.) 
Adult Male.— General colour above sandy-buff, with blackish 
centres to the feathers lesser wing-coverts a little more tawny, 
with broad black streaks; median coverts greyish, mesially 
streaked with black, tipped also with black, before which is a 
broad sub-terminal bar of white ; greater coverts white, ashy at 
the'base, and with a broad sub-terminal bar of black ; P”™ary- 
roverts and quills blackish, with white spots on the middle of 
the latter, the inner secondaries elongated and tinged with 
