l62 



Eggs. — Four in number, pear-shaped, and of a creamy-buff to 

 a clay-coloured ground, with small blackish spots and lines, 

 sometimes forming small blotches near the larger end of the 

 egg ; the underlying spots purplish-grey, very small and 

 scarcely visible. Axis, i'3-i'5 ; diam., 0-9-51 '05. 



Mr. Robert Read says that he has noticed that the eggs 

 of this bird vary considerably in the ground-colour, accord- 

 ing to locality, those laid on the dark pebbles near inland 

 lakes and rivers being much duller than those laid on the 

 bright yellow sea-sand. As far as my experience goes, the 

 eggs, though laid in a sandy hollow, are generally surrounds d 

 by pebbly beach, many of the stones of which so nearly re- 

 semble the eggs themselves as to make the latter very diffi- 

 cult to find. 



II. THE LITTLE RINGED SAND-PLOVER. iEGIALITIS DUBIA. 



Charadriiis dubius^ Scop. Del. Faun, et Flor. Insubr. ii. p. 93 



(1786). 

 Charadrius minor (W. & M.), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 128 



(1850) ; Seebohm, Brit. B. iii. p. 16 (1885). 

 ^gialitis airo7iicus (Gm.), Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 491, pi. 524 



(1876) ; B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 159 (1883) ; Saunders, 



ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 262 (1883); id. Man. Brit. B. 



p. 525 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxx. (1895). 

 /Egialitis dubia, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 263 



(1896). 



Adult Male. — General colour above light brown, a little darker 

 on the rump and central upper tail-coverts ; sides of rump 

 and lateral upper tail-coverts pure white ; wing-coverts like the 

 back, the feathers round the bend of the wing darker brown ; 

 primary quills blackish, internally lighter brown, with dark shafts 

 to all the primaries except the first, which is white ; secondaries 

 dusky, lighter and more ashy-brown internally; inner secondaries 

 smoky-brown, with a good deal of white on both webs, the long 

 inner secondariesliketheback ; tail-feathers ashy-brown, tipped 

 with white, and with a broad sub-terminal black bar, the outer 

 feathers more distinctly edged with white, the two outermost 

 almost entirely white, with a black patch on the inner web cor- 

 responding to the sub-terminal bar on the rest of the feathers ; 



