Coursers and Pratincoles

Family: GLAREOLIDAE (Brehm 1831)

Genera: There are four genera in this family, three are coursers Cursorius, Smutsornis and Rhinoptilus and one is the pratincoles Glareola.

Cursorius – Latin; cursorius courier, runner (currere to run) (Latham 1790).
Smutsornis – after Field-Marshall Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950) South African writer, philosopher and politician; Greek; ornis bird (Roberts 1922).
Rhinoptilus – Greek; rhis nostrils; ptilon feather (Strickland 1852).
Glareola – Latin; diminutive of glarea gravel (Brisson 1760).

Distribution: Tropical regions in old world, absent from the Americas.

Europe: Collared Pratincole and Black-winged Pratincole.
Africa: Cream-coloured Courser, Somali Courser, Burchell’s Courser, Temminck’s Courser, Double-banded Courser, Three-banded Courser, Bronze-winged Courser, Collared Pratincole and Black-winged Pratincole. Madagascar Pratincole, Rock Pratincole and Grey Pratincole.
Asia: Cream-coloured Courser, Indian Courser, Jerdon’s Courser, Collared Pratincole, Oriental Pratincole and Small Pratincole.
Australasia: Australian Pratincole and Oriental Pratincole.

Current Taxonomy: Seventeen species comprising nine coursers and eight pratincoles.

Some authorities have subsumed all coursers into Cursorius..
Somali Courser was formerly considered to be two subspecies within Cream-coloured Courser.
Smutsornis originally included in Cursorius and then subsumed into Rhinoptilus; also has been placed in Hemerodromus, now reinstated as monotypic genus for Double-banded Courser Smutsornis africanus..

Subfamily Cursoriinae
Cream-coloured Courser Cursorius cursor (Latham 1787)
∗ C. c. cursor (Latham 1787)
∗ C. c. bogolubovi (Zarudny 1885)
∗ C. c. exsul (Hartert 1920)
Somali Courser C. somalensis (Shelley 1885)
∗ C. s. somalensis (Shelley 1885)
∗ C. s. littoralis (Erlanger 1905)
Burchell’s Courser C. rufus (Gould 1837)
Temminck’s Courser C. temminckii (Swainson 1822)
∗ C. t. temminckii (Swainson 1822)
∗ C. t. ruvanensis (Mádarasz 1915)
∗ C. t. aridus (Clancey 1989)
Indian Courser C. coromandelicus (Gmelin 1789)
Double-banded Courser Smutsornis africanus (Temminck 1807)
∗ S. a. africanus (Temminck 1807)
∗ S. a. raffertyi (Mearns 1915)
∗ S. a. hartingi (Sharpe 1893)
∗ S. a. gracilis (Fischer & Reichenow 1884)
∗ S. a. bisignatus (Hartlaub 1865)
∗ S. a. traylori (Irwin 1963)
∗ S. a. erlangeri (Niethammer & Wolters 1966)
∗ S. a. granti (Sclater, W. 1921)
Three-banded Courser Rhinoptilus cinctus (Heuglin 1863)
∗ R. c. cinctus (Heuglin 1863)
∗ R. c. emini (Sclater, P. 1857)
∗ R. c. seebohmi (Sharpe 1893)
∗ R. c. mayaudi (Érard, Hémery & Pasquet 1993)
Bronze-winged Courser R. chalcopterus (Temminck 1824)
Jerdon’s Courser R. bitorquatus (Blyth 1848)
Subfamily Glareolinae
Australian Pratincole Glareola isabella (Vieillot 1816)
Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola (Linnaeus 1766)
Oriental Pratincole Glareola maldivarum (Forster 1795)
Black-winged Pratincole Glareola nordmanni (Fischer 1842)
Madagascan Pratincole Glareola ocularis (Verreaux 1833)
Rock Pratincole Glareola nuchalis (Gray, G. 1849)
∗ G. n. nuchalis (Gray, G. 1849)
∗ G. n. liberiae (Schlegel 1881)
Grey Pratincole Glareola cinerea (Fraser 1843)
Small Pratincole Glareola lactea (Temminck 1820)

Past Taxonomy: Morphological analyses placed the Glareolidae in the suborder Charadrii, however recent molecular phylogenetic studies, have indicated it would be better placed in the sub order Lari where it is likely to be accompanied by the Dromadidae (Crab-plover) and Turnicidae (buttonquails) More detail here. The new thinking on the Lari suborder is as follows;

Family Turnicidae – Buttonquails (18 species)
Family Dromadidae – Crab-Plover (1 species)
Family Glareolidae – Coursers & pratincoles (17 species)
Family Laridae – Gulls, terns, skimmers (103 species)
Family Stercorariidae – Skuas (7 species)
Family Alcidae – Auks (25 species)

Fossil Species

Extant:
- Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola Middle Pleistocene of France.
Extinct:
- Boutersemia belgica (Mayr and Smith 2001) Early Oligocene of Belgium.
- Boutersemia parvula (Mayr and Smith 2001) Early Oligocene of Belgium.
- Paractiornis perpusillus (Wetmore, 1930) Early Miocene of Nebraska.
- Mioglareola dolnicensis (Švec, 1980) Early Miocene of the Czech Republic.
- Mioglareola gregaria (Ballmann, 1979) Early Miocene of the Czech Republic and Middle Miocene of Germany.
- Glareola neogena (Ballmann, 1979) Middle Miocene of Germany.
- “Gallinago” veterior (Jánossy, 1979) Early Pliocene of Hungary.
- G. †Boutersemia (Mayr and Smith 2001).
- †Boutersemia belgica (Mayr and Smith 2001).
- †Boutersemia parvula (Mayr and Smith 2001).

Bibliography

BirdLife International: IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 26/03/2020
del Hoyo, Josep, Andrew Elliot & Jordi Sargatal: Handbook of the Birds of the World – Vol. 3 (1996)
Hayman, Peter, John Marchant & Tony Prater: Shorebirds – An identification guide to the waders of the world (1986)
Jobling, James A.: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names (2010)
Seebohm, Henry: The Geographical Distribution of the Family Charadriidae, or, The Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes, and Their Allies (1888)
Wikipedia: List of fossil bird genera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fossil_bird_genera#Charadriiformes