or little-known Limicolse. 211 



Dimensions. Total length 8-5 inches; bill 1; wing 6*5; bare 

 portion of tibia '8 ; tarsus 1'8 ; middle toe '9. 



Hitherto this bird has generally been considered to be the 

 young oiE. asiaticus (Pall.); but as it differs materially from 

 that species in several important particulars^ I can only suppose 

 that such a conclusion was arrived at from descriptions, and not 

 from an actual comparison of specimens. 



When Mr. Gould described it for the first time, in 1848 [ut 

 supra), he had no adult specimens before him — those which he 

 exhibited from North Australia being young birds, in the brown 

 plumage which is peculiar to all the true Dotterels. 



In this same stage of plumage were all the specimens procured 

 in Java by Horsfield, and in that island, Celebes, and the Aru 

 Islands by Mr. Wallace, in New South Wales by Gilbert, 

 and on the Bampton Shoals, as mentioned, by Mr. Krefft. 

 Hence, until the adult bird had been obtained, it was almost 

 impossible to arrive at any sound conclusion as to its specific 

 characters; and Mr. Gould has very candidly remarked, in his 

 ' Handbook to the Birds of Australia ' (/. c), that this bird has 

 been a stumbling-block to all ornithologists, himself included, 

 from the time he first described it to the date of this remark. 



A specimen in full summer-plumage has at length been ob- 

 tained, and gives a solution of the difficulty. This specimen 

 was procured at Shanghai by Mr. Reeves, and was forwarded by 

 him to Mr. Gould, who has kindly lent it to me, with leave to 

 figure it in illustration of the present paper. 



It frequently happens that a general description may apply 

 to two or more allied species, and doubts may in consequence 

 be thrown upon a newly described species from the inability of 

 the reader to distinguish it from an allied form already well 

 known. Under these circumstances the difficulty may be got 

 over by presenting the reader with a good coloured figure; and 

 the present may be taken as a case in point. On comparing 

 the two plates (Pis. V. and VI.) it will be seen that thc^re is a 

 striking general resemblance between E. asiaticus and E. veredus, 

 and that the two species are evidently closely allied. Neverthe- 

 less there are certain characters, constant in each, and sufficient 

 to enable them to be separated without difficulty. 



