sarciophorus

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of spur-winged plovers, or wattled lapwings, of the family Charadriidæ, without any hind toe, with the wattles small, and the spur almost or quite obsolete. The type of the genus is the crested wattled lapwing, S. tectus, of Arabia and some parts of Africa, having a long pointed black crest when adult, and a band of black feathers from the neck along the breast; the primary coverts and the bases of all the primaries white, and the terminal half of the outermost secondaries black. The black-breasted wattled lapwing is S. pectoralis, of Australia and Tasmania; S. malabaricus is the Indian representative, and type of a subgenus Lobipluvia. The African S. albiceps, the black-shouldered or white-crowned wattled lapwing, is more aberrant, with better-developed wattles and spurs, and gives rise to the generic name Xiphidiopterus (which see).