642 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



Bill black, yellow at the base beneath ; irides deep brown ; 

 orbits much larger than in the last, yellow ; legs yellow. Length 

 hardly 6^ inches ; wing 4 ; tail 2 ; bill at front j\ ; tarsus 3% ; 

 middle-toe and claw | or a trifle more. 



I procured this small Plover in the Deccan, generally among 

 hills ; and also from the top of the Eastern Ghats inland from 

 Nellore. It has precisely similar habits to the last, but appears to 

 be more generally found in the interior than near the Coasts. 



Blyth writes me that the specimen of H. pusilla, Horsf., in the 

 India House Museum (in bad order) has the wing 4f long, and is 

 therefore either H. philippina, or some other species. Pallas' bird 

 appears to have been a young one, and he did not himself observe 

 it; but his measurements are nearly those of this bird, and 

 he states that it is much smaller than hiaticula. It resembles 

 ^. minor of Europe, but appears to be even smaller than 

 that species which is said to have the wing 4f inches. It is 

 perhaps Swinhoe's bird, H. pusilla, which, he says, frequents 

 rice fields or fields of dry mould. 



There are many other species of Charadriiis in America, Africa, 

 and Australia. Amongst the foreign forms allied to these Plovers 

 are the Dottrels, Eudromias, Boie {Morinellus, Bonap.,) containing 

 the well known Dottrel of England, JU. morinellus, which frequents 

 downs, ploughed land, and hilly-ground, breeding on high moun- 

 tains. A second species is £'. caspius, Pallas, from Central Asia, 

 said to have been killed in Europe. Charadrius obscurics, 

 Gmelin, and C. monffolus, Pallas, are placed by Bonaparte in 

 Pluviorhynchus, next the Dottrels, but both mongohis and caspius 

 appear to be very like the rufous phases of true Charadrius. A 

 New Zealand form with lengthened bill, is named Tldnornis ; and 

 this appears to me to grade towards Hcematopus. Erytlirogonys 

 cinctus, Gould, from Australia also appears to be a very distinct 

 form, having the whole head and broad pectoral band black, and 

 rather long legs. It has, however, four toes, and perhaps belongs to 

 the Lapwings. Phegornis, Gray, (Leptopus, Eraser^ is applied to 

 an African bird, Leptopus Mitchelli, of Eraser, Several American 

 Plovers of this group are arranged in various other genera, 

 one of which, at all events, appears to be well marked, viz., 



