106 CHARADRIN.^. 



patches or marblings ; primaries and secondaries dusky brown, the shafts of 

 the first five white anteriorly. 



Lenglh. — 10-5 to irs inches ; wing 7-5 ; bill black ; irides deep brown. 



Hah. — Sind, Punjab, and Beloochistan. 



This species was first entered in the Sind list by Mr. Hume with a query. 

 Since then all the specimens obtained by myself and others were longipes. In 

 my Handbook mention was made that pluvialis would be found to occur, 

 Mr. Blanford having recorded it from only 200 miles further west at Gwadur. 

 Mr. Brooks, Stray Feathers, viii., 489, has since then recorded it from near 

 Sehwan. Mr. Hume, in vol.i.,p. 2.2(^oi Stray Feathers, points out the difference 

 between /«/6'z/j' = longipes z.nd virginicus from America. He says, ''■pluvialis 

 is at once distinguished by its pure white axillary plumes, whxch'm fidviis are 

 brownish or smoke grey. Fidvus and virginicus differ chiefly in their relative 

 proportions, the former being always smaller." The following are the dimen- 

 sions of the three given by Harting : — 



Bill. Wing. Tarsus. 



C. virginicus vo 7 to 7-4 i'6 



C. fulvus o'S to 0-9 6-4 to 6-6 1-5 



C. pluvialis 0-9 7'5. 1*4 



Gen. .ffigialitis.— -Do/t'. 



Bill slender, grooved on upper mandible for two-thirds its length ; front of 

 bill raised; upper mandible slightly the longer; ist quill longest. All the 

 Sand Plovers are more or less gregarious in their habits, and feed either on 

 ploughed lands, meadows, edges of marshes and ponds, sandbanks, mud 

 lagoons and banks of rivers and tanks. They run with some speed, making 

 a dead stop now and again to pick up a worm, mollusc, small Crustacea or 

 other insects on which they feed. Nearly all are migratory. Eggs, generally 

 4 in number, are of a stone yellow or greenish colour, richly blotched. 



132. -ffigialitiS Geoffroyi, Wagl., Syst. Av. Charadrius sp. 19 ; 

 Jerd., B. Lid. iii. p. 638; Harting, Ibis, 1870, p. 378, pi. xi. ; Salvad., Ucc. 

 Born. p. 318; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 426; Dresser, B. Eur. vii. 

 p. 475, pi. ; Hume and Dav., Str. F. vi. p. 455 ; Hume, Str. F. viii. pp 1 12, 

 200; Legge, B. Ceylon, p. 939; Oates, B. Br. Bur?n. ii. p. 366; Kelham, 

 Ibis, 1882, p. 9; Murray, Vert. Zool., Sind, p. 226; id., Avif. Brit. Ind. 

 i. p. 585, No. 1259. Cirrepidesmus Geoffroyi, Hume, Str. F. i. p. 229; 

 ii. p. 288 ; id., Nests and Eggs Ind. B. p. 5 7 1. —The Large Sand Plover. 



In winter plumage, head, neck, nape, back, sides of the breast, scapulars 

 and wing coverts greyish brown ; a streak from the base of the mandible 

 under the eye to the ear coverts slightly darker ; forehead, a streak above the 

 eye, chin, throat, sides of the neck and rest of the lower parts white ; upper 



