628 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



Char. — Bill shorter and more robust than in Cursorius, straight, 

 the tip slightly widened and curved; feathers of the forehead 

 advanced ; orbits feathered ; 2nd and 3rd primaries sub-equal and 

 longest; tarsus long, scutellate, feet short, the outer toe joined by- 

 web. 



This form combines the large eye and somewhat the colours of 

 some of the true Plovers, especially of the Dottrels, with the 

 lengthened legs and general structure of the Courier-plovers. It 

 is composed of one Indian and two or three African species, one of 

 which, Cursorius chalcopterus, Temm., (subsequently separated as 

 Chalcopterus) nearly agrees in character with the Indian bird ; the 

 other species, C. hicinctus, being said by Bonaparte to approximate 

 Cursorius. As far as is known of their habits from the Indian 

 bird, thsy may be said to be a mountain form of CursoriuSy fre- 

 quenting rocky hills with thin jungle.' 



841. Rhinoptilus bitorquatus, Jeedon. 



Blyth, J. A. S., XVII. 254 — R. bicinctus apud Bonaparte, 

 (olim) — Adavi ivuta-titti, Tel., i. e., eTungle empty-purse. 



The Double-banded Plover. 



Descr. — Above sandy brown with a faint pink gloss, the dorsal 

 feathers slightly margined with rusty brown, and the wing-coverts 

 more conspicuously with pale rufescent ; crown of the head black 

 with rusty lateral margins to the feathers ; a broad white super- 

 cilium, commencing with the lores, is continued round the occiput, 

 and there is a less defined (but equally conspicuous) rufescent 

 white streak along the mesial line of the head ; ear-coverts streaked 

 dusky and ferruginous ; throat white, with a broad rufous band 

 below it ; this is bordered by a narrow white semi-collar, continued 

 to below the ear-coverts and narrowly edged above and below with 

 dusky, then follows a broad brown gorget, and another white 

 collar, margined above and below with dusky ; this again is 

 succeeded by brown, forming an ill-defined band on the lower 

 part of the breast, and the rest of the lower parts are isabelline, 

 with Avhite upper and lower tail -coverts ; primaries and their 

 coverts black, the first two primaries largely and obliquely marked 



