294 • BIEDS OF TUNISIA 



Description. — Adult male, autumn, from Djerba, South Tunisia. 



Upper plumage black, streaked, spotted, and barred with golden-yellow, 

 lightest on the nape ; forehead, sides of the head and upper throat white, 

 tinged slightly with yellow, and streaked with greyish-brown ; lower throat 

 and breast whitish, tinged with yellow and spotted with greyish-brown ; 

 lower abdomen, under tail-coverts and axillaries white. 



Iris brown ; bill black ; feet slate-colour. 



Total length 11 inches, wing 7'40, culnien 1, tarsus 1-50. 



Adult female resembles the male, but has the breast browner. 



In spring the underparts of the male are almost entirely black, and a 

 white stripe runs from the forehead over the eye and down the sides of 

 the neck and body. 



The Golden Plover is abundant in Tunisia during the winter 

 months, arriving in autumn and leaving again in spring. In the 

 immediate neighbourhood of the town of Tunis the species may 

 often be seen, and numbers are sold in the Tunis market. It is also 

 plentiful near Mahares and other places on the east coast of the 

 Eegency. 



The species occurs abundantly in some parts of Algeria and 

 Marocco in winter, and has also been recorded from Madeira and the 

 Azores. It breeds in Northern Europe and in some parts of Central 

 Europe, and is to be found on migration throughout the south of our 

 Continent. In Africa it is to be met with as far south as the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and in Asia as far east as the Yenesei river and India. 

 In Eastern Asia it is replaced by the Eastern or Lesser Golden 

 Plover (C. doininiciis, P. L. S. Miiller). 



The Golden Plover frequents open country, marshes, moors and 

 the sea-shore, and during the periods of passage is to be found 

 in large flocks. It is usually very shy and difficult to approach. Its 

 flight is swift and powerful, and it also runs well. It feeds on worms, 

 insects and small molluscs, and also to a certain extent, on seeds. 

 Its note is a clear and rather plaintive whistle, which may often 

 be heard at night, for the species migrates by night as well as by day. 



Under the name of Pluvialis longipes, Loche includes the Eastern 

 Golden Plover (C. dominicus) among the birds of Algeria, an example 

 of this species having been obtained once in that country near Koubra 

 (Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. ii., p. 2(34). Colonel Irby records an example 

 of this Asiatic species as having been obtained near Malaga in 1878. 

 This specimen is in the late Lord Lilford's collection, now in my 

 possession. From Malta C. dominicus appears to have been recorded 

 no less than three times. 



