CASPIAN PLOVER. 



Charadriid^.] 



CHARADRIUS ASIATICUS, Pallas. 



Explanation of Plate. 

 Kirghis Steppes. In collection of H. E. Dresser, Esq. 



An example of this Asiatic species was shot in Norfolk on May 22nd, 1890, 

 this being the only British record. 



Pkof. M. Menzbier, of Moscow University, has kindly supplied me with some 

 valuable notes on this species, which I translate as follows : — " The breeding-area 

 of the Caspian Plover extends from the mouth of the Volga eastward over the 

 lower courses of the rivers Ural and Emba, and stretches along the eastern shores 

 of the Caspian Sea ; from here it extends to the Sea of Aral, to the salt lakes of 

 Turkestan, and to the south as far as Amu-Darja. It only occurs as a straggler 

 near Astrachan, where Henke shot a pair of these Plovers flying with a flock of 

 Pratincoles in the spring of 1871. It breeds regularly around Gurjew, Severtzoff 

 observed it in the Issenj-Berdy district on the lower course of the Emba. Zarudny 

 found this species in the neighbourhood of Kos-Kulj, on the river Issembaj, in the 

 Bisch-Tomak district, and on the Uek, in the Kara-Turgaj district. At Orenburg, 

 however, he did not meet with it even on passage. Owing to its sporadic 

 distribution the Caspian Plover does not nest every year in the same districts, and 

 only occurs occasionally even in those regions where it breeds regularly. It has 

 been observed on passage in large numbers at Lenkoran, occasionally at the mouth 

 of the Terek, and on the south-eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. It has been 

 obtained below Odessa in the spring. From the southern shore of the Caspian 

 Sea the lines of migration of this species intersect Arabia and extend to the 

 region of the Upper Nile ; and from here its winter-quarters extend to the 

 southern half of Africa. 



" Details respecting the life-history of the Caspian Plover are very meagre. 

 It inhabits waste regions with a salty or dry clayey soil, covered with tall thin 

 wormwood and other scanty herbage. It also frequents low-lying steppes, having 

 a clayey soil and almost devoid of vegetation. The Caspian Plover arrives on the 



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