554 S0CIAf3LE PLOVER. 



known, but with which I happened to be familiar, having recently 

 received from the Crimea the specimen figured in the background 

 of the present illustration. The bird has not actually been killed 

 in Poland, but near Lublin in September 1842 Taczanowski 

 identified two adults — which he was unable to shoot — in company 

 with some Golden Plovers. The Sociable Plover inhabits the 

 steppes of the Crimea and of the district between the Don, the Volga 

 and the Caucasus, as well as the Aralo-Caspian area and Turkestan ; 

 while on June nth 1S97 Mr. Popham shot an example in lat. 61° N. 

 on the Yenesei, a great extension of the range of this species. In 

 September it crosses the Pamirs to the dry uplands of Sind and the 

 sandy plains of India, and wanders southward to Ceylon in the cold 

 season, when it also visits Arabia, Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia. 



Eggs obtained through the Moravian colony at Sarepta, and taken 

 on the Sarpa, are rather paler than those of the Lapwing and less 

 thickly spotted : measurements i"S by i"3 in. Prof. Menzbier says 

 that the male takes part in incubation. The food consists of 

 spiders, grasshoppers, beetles and their larvae. Von Heuglin, who 

 had opportunities of observing this bird in Kordofan and Sennaar, 

 says that it frequented sandy localities and ground that had been 

 burnt ; it was, as a rule, quite silent, but every now and then he 

 heard it utter a short, shrill whistle. 



The adult has the crown of the head glossy-black, enclosed by a 

 broad white band which starts from the base of the bill and runs 

 backwards above each eye to the nape ; lores and a narrow streak 

 behind each eye black ; nape and mantle pale drab, rather browner 

 on the wing-coverts ; secondaries conspicuously white, quills chiefly 

 black ; tail-feathers white, with a subterminal band of dark brown 

 on all except the outer pair ; chin white ; cheeks and sides of the 

 throat pale buff; breast ash-brown, turning to black on the belly, 

 followed by rich chestnut-red on the flanks and vent ; axillaries and 

 under tail-coverts white; bill, legs and feet black. Length 12 in. ; 

 wing 8 in. The sexes scarcely differ in plumage. The young bird 

 has the crown dark brown, with a bufifish-white circlet ; cheeks and 

 nape dull buff, striped with brown ; breast rather distinctly marked 

 with ' arrow-heads ' of ash-grey ; belly dull white, with a little chest- 

 nut above the vent ; the tzvo outer pairs of tail-feathers white ; 

 axillaries and under wing-coverts white, as in the adult. 



This species is often placed in the genus Cha'tusia, chiefly because 

 it has not a crest ; but it has a hind-toe, and for the purpose of the 

 present work I have thought best to unite it with VaneHus. 



