November, 1899.] 233 



THE OCCURRENCE OF THE SOCIABLE PLOVER IN 



IRELAND. 



BY EDWARD WILXIAMS. 



[Plate 10.] 



On the 3rd of August, in the present year, I received a bird 

 from Robinstown, near Navau, Co. Meath, which puzzled me 

 very much. At first I thought it was a variety of the common 

 Green Plover, but on closer examination I found the legs 

 were much longer. 



Upon looking over the collection of skins of the Charadriidce 

 in the Dublin Museum, I was able to identify the bird as the 

 Gregarious Plover (Charadrius gregarhis, Pall.), or as Mr. 

 Howard Saunders calls it, in the last edition of his 

 " Manual of British Birds," the Sociable Plover ( Vanellus 

 gregarius). 



As will be seen further on, in the extract from that valuable 

 work, its claims to rank as a British bird were, to say the 

 least, resting on a very slender basis, but the occurrence in 

 Ireland of a second example firmly establishes its right to a 

 place in the British list, and adds a new bird to our Irish 

 fauna. 



Upon communicating with the owner as to its capture, he 

 informed me that on the 1st August one of his men whilst 

 grubbing turnips noticed this fancy bird, as he called it, running 

 about the field, and went in for his master, who came out and 

 shot the specimen. 



As far as I can make out by comparison, the bird is a female, 

 and I think in the second year's plumage. The following is 

 a full description : — 



Top of head very dark brown dappled with light buff ; a 

 broad light-coloured band extends 'right over the eye from the 

 bill to the back of the head. Back ash-grey with a number of 

 new feathers of a dark brown tint, with a rufous edge coming 

 out all over, which I take to be the winter plumage. Lower 

 part of breast blackish, with a baud of chestnut not very 

 clearly defined extending right across behind the legs. Vent 

 and lower tail coverts white ; upper tail coverts snow white. 

 Tail consisting of twelve feathers, two outer ones white, the rest 



A 



