CHARADRIID.E. 



537 



THE SOCIABLE l'LO\'ER. 

 Vaneli.us ciREC.ARius (Pallas). 



In the autumn uf the year iS6o or thereabouts, an immature 

 example of this south-eastern species was shot from among a flock 

 of Lapwings, near St. Michael's-on-Wyre in Lancashire ; and having 

 been subsequently placed in a case with many other stuffed birds 

 whicli impeded the view, it was erroneously recorded as a Cream- 

 coloured Courser by Mr. F. S. Mitchell. It afterwards came into 

 the possession of Mr. W. H. Doeg, when it was correctly identified, 

 and was exhibited by Mr. Seebohm at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society of London on November 20th 1888. Its pedigree appears 

 to be perfectly satisfactory. 



The Sociable Plover has not yet been observed in Heligoland or 

 the northern part of Western Europe, but as long ago as March 

 1838 an adult (figured by Bonaparte) was shot near Rome, where a 

 young female was obtained in November 1872, while a third example 

 was killed near Sienna in the spring of 1856. On the Riviera, an 

 adult male was taken near Nice in April 1883. At Cadiz, in 

 February 1868, I found in the market a bird— too advanced for 

 preservation — in the plumage of the first year, a stage then little 



