120 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



mandible; the feet and toes light brown or olive-flesh. The yellow 

 around the eye and at the base of the bill is much more lasting and 

 conspicuous in dried skins of jerdoni than of curonicus, but I do not 

 know whether it is correspondingly brighter in life. 



The adult has a band across the forecrown, the lores and the area 

 about the eye, and a complete collar over the upper back and across 

 the upper breast black ; the forehead, supercilium, throat, nuchal col- 

 lar connected with the throat, remainder of underparts, and the greater 

 portion of the outer tail feathers white; the rest of the plumage ashy 

 brown. 



The young bird presumably has a plumage much like that described 

 under the preceding form, but it is noteworthy that every Thai speci- 

 men of the little ringed plover in immature dress has proved to belong 

 to the race curonicus. 



I have not been able to compare Thai examples with indubitable 

 jerdoni of South India. My specimens are small: the wings of five 

 males measure 96.6-101.3 mm. (one, 104 mm.) ; of nine females, 101.4- 

 104.3 mm. (one, 106.9 mm.). The wing lengths of jerdoni in India, 

 as recorded by several authors, are considerably greater, but this ap- 

 pears to be due to the practice of lumping under a common name the 

 rather larger birds of the Himalayas with the smaller birds of southern 

 India, to which alone the name jerdoni properly should be applied. 

 Thai birds agree well, in fact, with two males from southern India 

 which have wing lengths of 102.4 mm., but are smaller than two Hima- 

 layan specimens with wings of 108.8 and 109 mm. 



Since even the Palearctic curonicus has been taken at Bangkok as 

 early as August 24 and as late as April 12, I suggest that some or all 

 of the larger Indian examples believed to be typical jerdoni are, as a 

 matter of fact, even though collected far south, early or late visitors 

 from more northern breeding grounds. Comparison of series of 

 breeding birds from the Himalayas with similar series from Ceylon 

 and South India may make it desirable to place the former under a 

 separate name. 



CHARADRIUS ALEXANDRINUS ALEXANDRINUS Linnaeus 



Western Kentish Plover 



[Charadrius] alexandrinus Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 150 



("ad vEgypti ex Nilo canalem"). 

 Leucopolius alexandrinus dealoatus, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 



1931, p. 171 (Chiang Mai). 

 Charadrius alexandrinus dealbatus, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 



1986, p. 82 (Chiang Mai). 



At Chiang Mai I found the Kentish plover rather common from 

 the beginning of October to the end of March and have seen it in small 

 numbers in June and August; I have also taken it at Mae Sariang, 

 October 26, 1936. 



