116 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



holm six undated specimens from Khun Tan. I have skins from 

 Chiang Mai, Wiang Pa Pao, and Ban Na Noi (Nan Province). 



The red-wattled lapwing haunts areas of barren soil or short grass, 

 whether wet or dry. I have found it in pairs or small parties at the 

 edge of ponds and marshes, on the ricefields after harvest, in pastures 

 and meadows, and even in the more open fa daeng. It is an excit- 

 able and fearless bird, wheeling about the intruder upon its territory 

 with loud, nasal cries, did-he-do'-it, do-it, do-it, did-he-dare' -do-it, and 

 effectively alarming all other birds in the neighborhood. It is active 

 after dark and on nights of bright moonlight often ascends high into 

 the air to soar about, constantly calling. Uneducated people believe 

 this nocturnal singing to be an omen of death ; there is also a belief 

 prevalent in all parts of Thailand that the bird sleeps on its back 

 with feet upraised, lest the sky fall during the night. The stomach 

 of one of my specimens was filled with beetles. 



It has not yet been found breeding with us, but May specimens 

 show the lateral brood patches. At this season I have observed birds 

 seeking escape by lowering the head almost to the ground and silently 

 slinking off in a zigzag path, and have no doubt that a nest was in 

 the vicinity. 



A Wiang Pa Pao specimen of July 26 is subadult ; the feathers of 

 the chin and throat are white with black shaft streaks and fresh 

 central rectrices are about four-fifths grown. 



A male had the irides brownish red; the eye ring, wattles, and 

 basal half of the bill rose-red, the rest of the bill black; the feet 

 yellow, tinged greenish at the "knee"; the toes dusky green; the 

 claws black. 



The adult has the sides of the head behind the eye white ; the rest 

 of the head, the neck, and upper breast black ; the remaining under- 

 pays white, this color continued over the nape as a narrow band ; the 

 back and scapulars light brown, glossed with green; the upper wing 

 coverts light brown, glossed with violet ; the primaries and outer sec- 

 ondaries black ; the inner secondaries partly or wholly white, forming 

 a conspicuous white wing bar ; the upper tail coverts and tail white, 

 the latter with a broad, black subterminal bar. 



HOPLOPTERUS DUVAUCELII (Lesson) 



Indian Spur-winged Plover 



Charadrius Duvaucelii Lesson, Diet. Sci. Nat., 4d. Levrault, vol. 42, 1826, p. 38 

 (Calcutta, Bengal). 



Hoplopterus ventralis, Gtloenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1913, 

 p. 69 (Mae Yom river near Phrae, Mae Yom near "Vang Nun") ; 1916, p. 143 

 (Mae Ping river, Khun Tan) ; Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 1915, p. 235 

 (listed) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 755 ("Along the larger rivers of the whole country"). — 

 de Schatjensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1929, p. 584 (Chiang 



