Birds of Astrakhan. 221 



Otis houbara. 



The Houbara Bustard is not comnion_, and is principally 

 confined to the steppes. It is very rare in the Kalmuk 

 steppes, but it breeds in the Kirghiz steppes, though some- 

 what locally. 



Glakeola melanoptera. 



The Eastern Pratincole is very abundant in the steppes, 

 but Henke did not meet with the western species. It does 

 not remain during winter. 



OEdicnemus crepitans. 



The Stone-Curlew is a very common summer visitor. 



Chettusia gregaria. 



The Sociable Plover is a very rare summer visitor near the 

 river, and is only found on the barren steppes. 



Eudromias morinellus. 



The Dotterel passes through Astrakhan in spring and 

 autumn on migration. Henke maintains that a few remain 

 to breed on the Kirghiz steppes, that he has shot birds with 

 the feathers abraded on the underparts by incubation, and 

 that he once obtained a sitting of eggs. 



Eudromias asiaticus. 



The Caspian Dotterel is rarely seen near Astrakhan. Henke 

 got a pair in the spring of 1871. In 1875 he found it breed- 

 ing in a colony of about thirty pairs on a piece of ground 

 covered with blackish lichen near a salt marsh on the Kirghiz 

 steppes. He never found more than three eggs in one nest, 

 if the slight depression in the ground may be called a nest, 

 and had great difficulty in finding them, the birds leaving 

 them while he was still a long way off. The birds are very 

 local, and evidently often change their breeding-stations, as 

 Henke visited this locality in the two succeeding years with- 

 out finding them. 



^GIALITIS HIATICULA. 



The Ringed Plover is fi'equently met with both near the 

 river and on the steppes in summer. 



