Also thicknee. A name for any bird of the genus Œdicnemus, esp. the Stone Curlew, Norfolk or Great Plover, Œ. scolopax (Œ. crepitans, Temminck); so called from the enlargement of the tibio-tarsal joint.
1816. Leach, Cat. Mamm. & B. in Brit. Mus., 28. Fedoa Œdicnemus Common thicknee, Wiltshire.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVI. 402/1. The … Thick-knee, Thick-kneed Bustard.
1866. Owen, Vertebr. Anim., xiv. II. 26. The ‘Thick-knees’ … and Bustards … have the four-notched sternum.
1896. List Anim. Zool. Soc., 520. Œdicnemus grallarius, Australian Thicknee,… Œ. superciliaris, Peruvian Thicknee.
So Thick-kneed a., having thick knees; esp. in thick-kneed bustard or plover, the Stone Curlew.
1776. Pennant, Zool. (ed. 4), I. 244. Bustard, thick-kneed.
1840. [see THICK-KNEE].
1893. Newton, Dict. Birds, 129. The Curlew of inlanders, or Stone-Curlew—called also … most wrongly … the Thick-knee or Thick-kneed Bustard.
