The Eurasian stone-curlew, Eurasian thick-knee, or simply stone-curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) is a northern species of the Burhinidae (stone-curlew) bird family. Taxonomy The Eurasian stone-curlew was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Charadrius oedicnemus. He specified the locality as England. The name Oedicnemus had been used earlier by the French naturalist Pierre Belon in 1655. The species is now placed in the genus Burhinus that was introduced by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger in 1811. The genus name combines the Greek meaning "ox" with meaning "nose". The species name oedicnemus combines the Greek meaning "to swell", and meaning "shin" or "leg", referring to the bird's prominent tibiotarsal joints, which also give it the common name of "thick-knee". This is an abbreviated form of Thomas Pennant's 1776 coinage "thick-kneed bustard". The name "stone curlew" was recorded by Francis Willughby in 1678 as a "third sort of Godwit, which in Cornwall they call the Stone-Curlew, differing from the precedent in that it hath a much shorter and slenderer Bill than either of them". It derives from the bird's nocturnal calls sounding like the only distantly related Eurasian curlew Numenius arquata and its preference for barren stony heaths. Five subspecies are recognised: B. o. oedicnemus (Linnaeus, 1758) – west, south Europe to the Balkans, Ukraine and Caucasus B. o. distinctus (Bannerman, 1914) – west Canary Islands B. o. insularum (Sassi, 1908) – east Canary Islands B. o. saharae (Reichenow, 1894) – north Africa and the Mediterranean islands to Iraq and Iran B. o. harterti Vaurie, 1963 – west Kazakhstan to Pakistan and northwest India The Indian stone-curlew Burhinus indicus was previously considered as a subspecies of the Eurasian stone-curlew. Description It is a fairly large wader though is mid-sized by the standards of its family. Length ranges from , wingspan from and weight from . with a strong yellow and black beak, large yellow eyes (which give it a "reptilian", or "goggle-eyed" appearance), and cryptic plumage. The bird is striking in flight, with black and white wing markings. Distribution and habitat The Eurasian stone curlew occurs throughout Europe, north Africa and southwestern Asia. It is a summer migrant in the more temperate European and Asian parts of its range, wintering in Africa. Despite being classed as a wader, this species prefers dry open habitats with some