206 Mr. J. E. Harting on rare 



In giving " Charadrius gigas, Brehm/' as a synonym of ^. asi- 

 aticus, I have adopted the opinion of Bonaparte (/. c), not being 

 acquainted with Dr. Brehm's description*. Prof. Schlegel is 

 wrong in giving C. montanus, Townsend, as a synonym of C. 

 asiaticus (Mus. P.-B. Cursores, p. 38) ; and Mr. Layard makes 

 the same mistake (B. S. Afr. p. 299). The bird to which they 

 refer is the Mountain-Plover of America, a rare species in col- 

 lections, and one which never assumes at any season a rufous 

 colour on the breast f- 



The bird described from Damaraland by Strickland {I.e.), to 

 which he gave the provisional name of C. damarensis, is undoubt- 

 edly the young of E. asiaticus, as I have ascertained by exam- 

 ination of the type-specimen, now in the Cambridge Museum. 



Temminck (Man, d'Orn. ii. p. 539), by mistake, gave C. 

 asiaticus and C. caspius, Pallas, as synonyms of E. morinellus. 

 The C asiaticus of Horsfield (Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 137) 

 is jEgialitis geoffroyi, Wagler (C leschenaulti. Lesson); so also 

 IS the C. asiaticus of Mr. Tristram (P.Z. S. 1864, p. 450 J). 

 These species I shall have occasion to mention again presently 

 in connexion with the localities assigned to the bird described 

 by Pallas. It is, perhaps, not unnecessary to add that in 

 placing the present species in the restricted genus Eudromias, 

 which was founded by Boie in 1822, I have followed Mr. G. R. 

 Gray and INIr. Gould [id supra) in considering it, both in struc- 

 ture and in the character of its plumage, most nearly allied to 

 the true Dotterels. 



The specimens of E. asiaticus which were procured by Pallas 

 about the salt-lakes in the southern deserts of Tartary, were all 



* [We cannot say where the oiigiual description is to be found, unless 

 it be that given by Dr. Brehm in his ' Vogelfang ' (p. 283) as follows : — 

 " JEffialitis gigas, Alfr. et Lud. Brm. Er ist noch niehr als ein Mai so 

 gross, als jeder der vorhergehenden, 8" 6'" lang, oben aschgrau erdfarben, 

 luiten weiss mit einem grauen, in der Mitte schmalen Ilalbringe am Kropfe. 

 Wird sich von Suez nach Osteuropa verirren." — Ed.] 



t Cf. Townsend, '* Description of twelve new species of Birds, chiefly 

 from the vicinity of Columbia River," Journ. Ac. N. S. Philad. 1837, 

 p. 192, and also Elliot's 'Birds of North America,' where a good figure 

 of this species is given (ii. pi. 39). 



X See also ' The Land of Israel,' pp. 92, 372. 



