Mr. H. Seebohm on the Genus Himantopus. 225 
ten species which constitute the genus Himantopus. These 
three characters are a long bill and a long and reticulated 
tarsus. The genus may therefore be diagnosed as follows :— 
Charadriidse having the tarsus covered all over with a net¬ 
work of fine hexagonal reticulations, having more than three 
fourths of the bill (measured from the frontal feathers) beyond 
the nasal orifice, and having the tarsus at least twice the 
length of the middle toe. 
The species may be diagnosed as follows :— 
Innermost seconda- ) 
ries white .f 
Toes deeply webbed .. 
avocetta ,. 
rubricollis 
cimericanus 
White on scapulars. 
Outer webs of seconda¬ 
ries chiefly dark. 
andinus 
In pied plumage; black 
on hind neck not reach¬ 
ing to the crown .... 
Breeding - plumage I 
entirely dark.j 
mexicanus 
brasiliensis 
leucocephalus 
novce-zelandiee . 
melanopterus 
No white on wings. 
In pied plumage ; black 
> on hind neck not ex¬ 
tending under the eye. 
The range of the genus is almost cosmopolitan, but it does 
not extend into the Arctic Region nor to the smaller islands 
of the Pacific. Four species breed in the Australian Region, 
two in the Nearctic and two in the Neotropical Regions. The 
remaining two species breed in the Palsearctic Region, but 
one breeds also in the Oriental Region, and the other in the 
Ethiopian Region. This information has little interest be¬ 
cause it has little significance, except perhaps that Australia 
appears to have been the centre of distribution of the genus, 
an inference probably false. If the genus be split into three, 
bad is made worse, and the key to the geographical distribu- 
