CEYLON RAILS, WADERS, GULLS, AND TERNS. 19 
-I 
Bill black, vermilion round the gape ; iris dark brown; a ring 
of white skin round the orbit ; legs and feet reddish-brown. 
Length 9°5; wing 7°4; tail 3; depth of fork 1-0 ; tarsus 
1:3; bill from gape 1:0. 
Distribution —Resident in a few scattered colonies round 
large tanks, such as Minneri and Kanthalai, and on the shores 
of lagoons in the Hambantota District. Locally distributed 
in India and Burma, ranging north-east through China, and 
south-east to Australia. 
Habits —Already described in my remarks on the sub-family. 
I have taken the eggs twice, both times in the same locality 
in the Hambantota District, once in April and once in July. 
In each case the two eggs were laid on a small disintegrated 
patch of dry cowdung in dry sandy pasture near a lagoon. 
They are dumpy, slightly pointed ovals, rather velvety in 
appearance. The ground colour is drab, fairly evenly blotched 
with brown-black markings over fainter washy splotches of 
grayish-purple. Average size 1°20 by °93. 
GLAREOLA LACTEA (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 216; 
Legge, p. 984). 
The Small Indian Swallow Plover. 
(Plate I., fig 4.) 
Description —Upper plumage pale ashy-gray, darker on 
the forehead. Primary quills and wing lining black; there 
is some white on all the primaries, except the first two, the 
white increasing on the secondaries, which are black only 
towards the tip. Upper tail coverts white ; tail white with 
a broad black border tipped on all but the two central feathers 
with white. Chin whitish; throat, foreneck, and upper 
breast ashy-gray, tinged more or less with rufous ; abdomen 
and under tail coverts white. 
Bill black, red at the base, and yellowish round the gape ; 
iris dark brown ; a creamy orbital ring ; legs and feet brownish. 
Length 6°5; wing 5:9; tail 2°0; tarsus *75; bill from 
gape °75. 
Distribution —Fairly common near Hambantota, and 
found in a few other localities in the dry zone by the coast or 
