^GIALITIS DUBIA 297 



Sahara, this species is to be fouud running rapidly along the sand 

 by" all the Chotts and Sebkas in parties of from two to eight. It 

 breeds everywhere, but unHke our Ring Plover, appears to lay only 

 three eggs, which are placed on the level sand, without the precaution 

 of even selecting the impress of a camel's foot." 



In its habits the present species is active and sprightly, at times 

 not very shy, and when approached, often merely running off a few 

 yards, without taking to flight. During the breeding season, however, 

 I have found it very shy and wary. It feeds chiefly on worms, small 

 shell-fish and marine insects. Its notes vary a good deal, but are 

 mostly soft and rather plaintive. That most often heard is very 

 fairly rendered by the syllables " tirri-tirri," repeated constantly by 

 the bird on the wing. In spring the species is to be found in pairs, 

 but during the remainder of the year generally in small parties. It 

 deposits its eggs, three in number, in little round hollows on the bare 

 ground, either on sand or mud, and sometimes among shingle, where 

 they are not easily detected, owing to their appearance harmonising 

 with the surroundings. The eggs are generally of a yellowish- 

 buff coloiu', spotted and scrolled with blackish, and measure about 

 30 X 23 mm., but they vary a good deal. In Sicily I have found 

 the Kentish Plover breeding among the salt-pans numerous in the 

 neighbourhood of Trapani and Marsala. The nests were usually 

 placed on the footpaths or divisions separating the pans, and in full 

 view of anyone passing by. In some cases the nests were surrounded 

 by the debris of small shells. 



iEGIALITIS DUBIA (Scopoli). 

 LESSEE EINGED PLOVEE. 



Charadrius dubius, Scop. Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. ii, p. 93 (1786). 

 ^gialitis dubius, Swinhoc, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 404. 

 Charadrius curonicus, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 268 (1867). 

 .aigialites -minor, Kocnig, J.f: 0. 1888, p. 2,70 ;' id. J. f. 0. 1893, p.' 83. 

 .ffigialitis dubia, Sharpe; Gat:- Birds Brit. Mxis. xxiv, p. 263-; Erlanger, 



J.f. 0. i9oap. 60. -- - - : - . .: 



.ffigialitis curonica, TMiitaker, Ibis, 1895, p. 106. 



