Behaviour and Systematics of New Zealand Plovers

Abstract

Courtship behaviour and related aspects of reproduction in four endemic and a fifth self-introduced species of plover in New Zealand are described and used to suggest that the monotypic genus Anarhynthus be merged with Charadrius and that Charadrius is also the proper genus for obscurus. The close similarities between patterns of courtship behaviour of bicinctus, obscurus, frontalis and alexandrinus support Bock's (1958) grouping of them together and further indicate that they are a closely related subgroup within the genus Charadrius.