SOCIABLE PLOVER 
bo 
Oo 
Cr 
AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 
TOTAL LENGTH ... ae foe, ee LS yepatiay, 
WING Ser < shee MLDS. 55 
BEAK eee Rs: bes e Zo), 
TARSO-METATARSUS 7 ear 
Hee 93-4 im 
SOCIABLE PLOVER. Vanelius gregarius (Pallas). 
Coloured Figuwres.—Dresser, ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. vii, pl. 528 ; 
Lilford, ‘ Coloured Figures,’ vol. v, pl. 7. 
The Sociable Plover 1s a south-eastern species, which 
among other countries, inhabits ‘‘ the Steppes of the Crimea 
and of the district between the Don, the Volga and the 
Caucasus, as well as the Aralo-Caspian area and Turkestan ”’ 
(Saunders). In the year 1860 an immature bird wandered 
to England, and was shot among a flock of Green Plover, 
near St. Michael’s-on- Wyre, in Lancashire. 
After a lapse of thirty-nine years, a female in the second 
year’s plumage was secured in Ireland (the first on record 
in that country), and was sent to Messrs. Williams and 
Son, of Dublin, for preservation (Plate XV., fig. 2). It 
was shot on August Ist, 1899, near Navan, co. Meath. 
Through the courtesy of the late Mr. E. Wilhams I was 
privileged to examine this [nish rarity in the flesh, and to 
make several measurements before it was mounted.” 
An account of the capture, a description of the plumage, 
and a photograph of the bird itself, are embodied in an 
article published by the late Mr. E. Williams in the ‘ Irish 
Naturalist,’ vol. vii, 1899, p. 233. 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial.—Top of head, glossy 
black; above the eye is a broad white band which extends 
? T found that the total leneth was ane eee US) “ang 
Wing... at WSs AA te - 
Tibio-tarsus... Sf ae Die 
2:5 
Tarso-metatarsus Ane PATS) 
Taba iheb.s oc = ae ee O25 
Beak Mest 
