2 CHARADEIID.E. 



the valley of the liiver Ortschik. Kessler believes he met with it near Kon- 

 stantinograd in May 1840. According to Nordmann it appears in large flocks in 

 March on the shores of the Black Sea, and remains there till May without 

 pairing. It probably nests on the steppes of the Crimea and the Kherson 

 Government, and in the province of the Don Cossacks. As an instance of 

 how far north this bird will wander it may be stated that Taczanowski saw 

 a pair near Lublin in September 184'2. On the steppes of the Sta\Topol 

 Government it occurs frequently at the end of summer and in early autumn, rarely 

 in spring, and is absent in the summer. On the spring passage it occurs 

 occasionally on Lake Goktscha, and below Lenkoran, where it has been met with 

 in December. 



" The Sociable Plover appears to be a true inhabitant of the steppes and, as 

 far as I am aware, cannot accommodate itself to other localities. The cultivation 

 of the steppes must therefore sooner or later lead to the extermination of a very 

 characteristic representative of their fauna. This bird has received its local name 

 of Kretschetka from its grating cry ' kretsch, kretsch, kretsch,' which it repeats 

 continually when assailing an intruder, or in seeking to lead him away from 

 the nest. Although distinguished from the Lapwing both by the localities it 

 frequents and by its habits, yet it resembles the latter in many respects, as, for 

 example, in its form, size, peculiar flight, and swiftness in running. Viewed on 

 the wing from a distance, the Sociable Plover, with its slow beats of the wing and 

 upturned belly, might very well be taken for a Lapwing. 



" The Sociable Plover arrives rather late, and not until black bare patches 

 have appeared on the steppes, and the young grass has begun to spring up, which 

 does not take place till the beginniug of April on the Orenburg and Samara 

 steppes. These birds, however, appear in March on the steppes lying north of 

 the Black Sea, on their return from their African winter-quarters. Severtzofi" 

 observed them arrive from their Indian winter-resorts in the middle of March on 

 the River Syr-Darja. The time occupied in passage is rather long, the latest 

 individuals returning to their summer-quarters as late as the beginning of May. 

 These Plovers arrive in small flocks, which very soon take possession of sites for 

 their nesting colonies. 



" Flat, monotonous, steppes, covered with heath, are avoided by these birds, 

 and they only appear on the borders of such districts. The favourite localities for 

 nesting colonies are hilly steppes with a clayey ground, not too thickly covered 

 with heath, and with stretches of grass here and there, and bare, clayey patches ; 

 such a district being usually intersected by a river or lake. Here these birds 



