HZ MATOPODIN &. 339 
pointed; lower mandible strongly angulated; gonys long, 
commencing near the chin ; bill slightly descending at first from 
the chin; nostrils oval, lateral, near the base, pervious; wings 
long, equal to the tail, first primary longest ; tail even or barely 
rounded ; tarsus very long, as also the bare portion of the tibia ; 
feet much webbed, especially the outer and middle toes. 
Genus, Dromas, Payk. 
The characters are the same as those of the sub-family. 
Dromas ardeola, Payk. 
861.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 658; Murray’s Verte- 
brate Zoology of Sind, p. 234, 
THE CRAB PLOVER. 
Length, 15; wing, 8°75; tail, 2°95; tarsus, 3°6; bill, 2°5. 
Bill black ; irides brown; legs plumbeous. 
Whole head, neck, wing-coverts, lengthened tertiaries, scapulars 
and lower parts, white; mantle, interscapular region, greater 
wing-coverts and primaries, black; some of the tertiaries and 
the tail reddish-ashy, paling on the inner webs. 
The Crab Plover is not uncommon on the sea-coast near 
Kurrachee and at Mandavee. 
It is only of late years that any authentic information in 
regard to its nidification has been obtained. It has now been 
ascertained beyond any possibility of doubt, incredible as it may 
appear, that they burrow in sandhills (on small islands in the 
Persian Gulf), to the depth of about four feet or so, and lay a 
single white egg, similar to a duck egg, measuring 2°54 inches in 
length and 1°77 in breadth. 
SUB-FAMILY, Hematopodine. 
Bill lengthened, strong, and truncated ; tarsus short; plumage 
black or pied. 
Genus, Hematopus, Lin. 
Bill straight or slightly bent upwards, very long, robust, 
compressed, ending in a truncated point; nostrils in the 
middle of a long and deep oblique cleft; wings moderate 
or long, nearly reaching the end of the tail, pointed; first 
quill longest; tail moderate, nearly even, of twelve feathers; 
tarsi short, strong, reticulated ; hind-toe wanting ; anterior toes 
short, thick, edged with callosities ; the outer-toe joined at the 
base to the middle one by a web. 
Hematopus ostralegus, Lin. 
862.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 659; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. V, p. 212; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 
IX, p. 427; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p, 234. 
