Esacus

Esacus is a genus of bird in the stone-curlew family Burhinidae. The genus is distributed from Pakistan and India to Australia. It contains two species, the great stone-curlew and the beach stone-curlew.

==Taxonomy== The genus Esacus was introduced (as a subgenus) in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson to accommodate the great stone-curlew. The name is from Ancient Greek aisakos an unidentified bird variously associated with a robin, a shorebird or a cormorant. In Greek mythology Aesacus was a son of King Priam of Troy. Aesacus sorrowed for the death of his wife or would-be lover, and was transformed into a bird.