australian limicol^. 977 



36. Erythrogonys cinctus. 



(Red-kneed Dotterel). 



Erytliroqovys cincfHs^ Gould, P.Z.S., p. v., p. 1,53, Handb. B. of 

 Austi-"., ii., p. 210, (18G5); Ramsay, List Austr. B., p. 20, 

 (1888). 



This interesting Dotterel, wliich is restricted to the continent 

 of AiistraHa, is mostly an inland species, and appears to have 

 a somewhat irregular distribution over the territory to which 

 it is limited. Apparently it visits New South Wales and the 

 southern parts of' the continent on migration from its haunts 

 in the far north, breeding in the former region during its 

 sojourn there, (jould considered it to be a summer visitant 

 to New South Wales in wet seasons, and writing of it as 

 follows: — " [n October and November, 1839, I found it 

 tolerably abundant on the flats near Aberdeen and on the 

 npper part of the Dartbrook, a tributary of the river Hunter ; 

 and on visiting the Mokai and Namoi I observed it to be 

 equally abundant on those rivers." It is not uncommon in 

 the interior of the southern parts of the continent, viz., on 

 the Darling, in Riverina, along the Murray River, in the 

 north-west of Victoi-ia, and in South Australia. Mr. Campbell 

 writes me that it breeds in the Lower Murray and parts of 

 Riverina. In the extreme north it apjiears to be a straggler, 

 having been obtained at Derby, and on the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria. To these localities it probably strays from some 

 more permanent haunt in the interior of the north of the 

 continent. 



(lulhi). There is no luistaking this ,spe(ne.s, which I discriminated, /o^'.rtY., 

 tVoiu the Lesser Ringed Plover of Asia on account of its tli/ck prutuberfint 

 yellow pyclid, and yellow basal half of the under mandible, and in all 

 probability Clount Salvadori had no Indian or Ceylonese specimens by him 

 when he examined Dr. Ramsay's bird. This little Sand})l()ver ranges from 

 Northern India through the Deccan to the south of the Peninsula, and 

 thence to Ceylon, where I found it resident in the Northern Province. 

 Major Biddulph procured it in May and Se])te]nber at Gilgit, which is the 

 most northerly locality it has yet been observed in, for it does not seem to 

 cross the Karakoram Ranges into Turkestan. It does not appear to have 

 been noticed in the Calcutta District, but it has been obtained in Furreedpoor. 

 It is said to be common on the banks of the Irrawaddy, and has been 

 obtained in the Province of Pegu, as likewise further south in Tennasserim 

 It has not been observed, so far as I can ascertain, in the Malay Archiitelago, 

 aud it is doubtful after all whether Dr. Ramsay's birds were of this species. 

 The Port Moresby Plover may be a distinct species peculiar to New Guinea, 

 if not it must be a rare straggler to the Malayan sub-region froia Southern 

 Asia, in tlie sanje manner as the species identified by Goidd as ^32(/lalitis 

 fiiaticiila. 



