CHARADRIID.-E. 



553 



THE SOCIABLE PLOVER. 



Vanellus gregarius (Pallas). 



In the autumn of the year i860 or thereabouts, an immature 

 example of this south-eastern species was shot from among a flock 

 of Lapwings, near St. Michael's-on-Wyre in Lancashire; and having 

 been subsequently placed in a case with many other stuffed birds 

 which impeded the view, it was at first erroneously recorded as a 

 Cream-coloured Courser. It afterwards came into the possession 

 of Mr. W. H. Doeg, when it was correctly identified, and was ex- 

 hibited by the late Mr. Seebohm at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society of London on November 20th 1S88. Its pedigree appears 

 to be perfectly satisfactory. 



The Sociable Plover has not yet been observed in Heligoland or 

 the northern part of Western Europe, but as long ago as March 

 1838 an adult (figured by Bonaparte) was shot near Rome, where a 

 young female was obtained in November 1872, while a third example 

 was killed near Sienna in the spring of 1856. On the Riviera an 

 adult male was taken near Nice in April 1883. At Cadiz, in 

 February 1868, I found in the market a bird — too advanced for 

 preservation — in the plumage of the first year, a stage then little 



