PIPING PLOVER. 
79 
CEdicnemi, in which the gape extends to beneath the eye. The 
nostrils are basal, lateral, placed in the furrow, and covered by a 
membrane, leaving only a narrow longitudinal opening: the 
tongue is entire, obtusely lanceolate, channelled somewhat above, 
convex beneath. The head is large in proportion to the body, and 
the eyes large even for the head: the forehead is prominent and 
the face wholly feathered. The feet are either three or four-toed, 
with the hind toe exceedingly small and raised from the ground : 
the naked part of the tibia is moderate; the tarsi are longer than 
the middle toe and reticulated ; the toes scutellate, margined by a 
narrow squamulose membrane : the middle toe is longest and 
connected to the outer, at least to the first joint, by a membrane : 
even in the species that have the inner toe cleft there are traces 
of the membrane, which is so much developed in the Semipal- 
mated Ring-Plover: the nails are compressed, curved, and acute. 
The wings are elongated, acute, and tuberculate: the first primary 
is longest, and after the second they decrease rapidly, thus 
presenting a most useful mark for discriminating between this and 
the kindred genus Vanellus, which has obtuse wings, the third 
primary being the longest, and the others decreasing gradually. 
The tail is more or less rounded, always composed of twelve 
feathers, rounded or lanceolate. The plumage of the under parts 
is soft, the feathers being numerous, wide, rather dense in the 
centre, with the barbs rather loose, and well furnished with down 
at base: the plumage of the upper parts is rather dense, and the 
feathers more or less rounded at the tips : the scapularies are 
long, at the tips attenuated and very flexible. In most of the 
species the males and females are alike, the young somewhat 
different from them. They moult generally twice in the year, 
when the colours of their plumage undergo some changes. 
4 
The Plovers are all more or less gregarious in disposition: their 
haunts are either meadows, as the mottled Plovers, or the sea- 
