PLOVERS 415 



One amongst Golden Plovers, Belmullet, co. Mayo, Sept. 

 1894: Williams, ZooL, 1894, p. 428. 



Obs. This Plover, which, as noted by Herr Giitke, 

 has occurred in Heligoland, is distinguished by Mr. 

 Saunders as the Lesser Golden Plover, a name which 

 is also applicable to the Asiatic form, from which it 

 is hardly to be distinguished. It is characterised, 

 he says, by its larger average size, relatively shorter 

 inner secondaries, and less brilliant yellow tint ; but 

 these points may well be dependent upon age and 

 season. It is not possible to indicate any precise 

 character by which the Asiatic and American Golden 

 Plovers may be distinguished at a glance, and I am 

 disposed to agree with Dr. Sharpe in regarding them 

 as specifically identical under the name Charadrius 

 dominicus, that being the earliest name to which 

 a recognisable description is attached, bestowed by 

 S. P. Miiller in 1776 on a specimen received from 

 San Domingo. 



SOCIABLE PLOVER. Chmtusia gregaria (Pallas). 

 Length, 12 in.; bill, 1*3 in.; wing, 8 in.; tarsus, 

 2-35 in. 



Hah. Southern Russia and Turkestan, wandering to 

 India, Ceylon, Arabia, Egypt, and Abyssinia in winter. 



One, St. Michael's-in-Wyre, Lancashire, autumn 1860: 

 Originally recorded as a Cream-coloured Courser by 

 F. S. Mitchell, " Birds of Lancashire," 1885, p. 175, but 

 afterwards rightly named (ZooL, 1888, p. 389), and the 

 mistake corrected in the second edition of this book 

 (1892, p. 212), edited by Mr. Saunders. See Zool, 

 1893, p. 117. The stuffed specimen was exhibited by 



