THE RED-BREASTED DOTTERELS. I51 



the primaries with white shafts, but otherwise without white on 

 any of the quills ; axillaries white ; bill black ; feet greenish- 

 olive, the toes dusky ; iris dusky hazel. Total length, 7 inches ; 

 culmen, 0-9; wing, 5*65 ; tail, 2*15; tarsus, 1-35. 



Winter Plumage. — Differs from the summer plumage in want- 

 ing the rufous chest-band, which is replaced by brown, the rest 

 of the under surface being white. The general colour is rather 

 dark brown, including the head ; the sides of the face, forehead, 

 and eyebrow are tinged with sandy-buff, of which there is a shade 

 also round the hind-neck ; throat isabelline-white, separated 

 from the white breast by a broad band of ashy-brown, extend- 

 ing from the lower throat to the fore-neck and chest, and to the 

 sides of the upper breast. 



Young Birds. — Resemble the winter pUmiage of the adults, 

 but are distinguished by having sandy-buff edges to the feathers 

 of the upper surface, and the sides of the face and the chest 

 band are also decidedly tinged with sandy-buff. 



Characters. — Young birds might perhaps be passed over for 

 the young of the Ringed Sand-Plover, but they can always be 

 distinguished by their longer tarsi. 



Range in Great Britain. — On the 23rd of May, 1890, a pair of 

 strange Plovers w^re seen in a market garden on the North 

 Denes, at Yarmouth, and the male was shot and forwarded to 

 Mr. Southwell, at Norwich, by whom it was sent for exhibition 

 at the meeting of the Zoological Society on the 17th of June in 

 the same year. The bird was in full plumage, and has since 

 been placed in the Norwich Museum. 



Range outside the British Islands. — The breeding home of this 

 species is in the Kirghis Steppes and Central Asia, whence it 

 wanders in winter down the east coast of Africa to the Cape 

 and Damara Land. It is at the same time of year a visitor to 

 Western India, but is apparently a very rare bird there. It 

 visits the Caspian and Palestine on its migrations, and has also 

 been captured in the Indian Ocean far out at sea. Besides the 

 British example, the species has also been taken in Heligoland, 

 as well as in Italy. 



Habits. — In their winter home in South Africa, these Dotterels 

 are described by Mr. Amott and Mr. Ayres as frequenting the 



