CHARADRIID.«. 



537 



THE CASPIAN PLOVER. 



^^GIALITIS ASIATICA (Pallas). 



On the morning of May 22nd 1890, two strange birds were 

 observed in a large market-garden bordering on the North Denes at 

 Great Yarmouth, and later in the day one of them was shot. It 

 proved to be an adult male of the Caspian Plover, and, having been 

 exhibited by Mr. Southwell at a meeting of the Zoological Society 

 (Pr. Z. S. 1890, p. 461), it was placed in the Norwich Museum. 



In an important paper on Limicolae, published m ' The Ibis ' for 

 1870, Mr. Harting had described and figured this species ; pointing 

 out (p. 207) the possibility that it might visit England, inasmuch as 

 its occurrences at Heligoland in November 1850 and May 1859 

 had brought its westward wanderings within a measurable distance of 

 our shores. In November 1887 a straggler was obtained in Italy, on 

 the banks of the classical Metaurus, and is now in the Museum at 

 Florence. That as long ago as April 1836 an example should have 

 been taken at Odessa, as well as a pair at Astrakhan in 187 1, is not 

 surprising, for the home of this Sand-Plover begins at the Khirgis 

 steppes. According to Prof. Menzbier (Poynting's ' Eggs of 

 Limicolje,' p. 23), the breeding-area extends from the mouth of the 

 Volga over the lower courses of the rivers Ural and Emba, and 



