382 Mr. J. E. Harting on rare 



1859, p. 188) Dr. Leith Adams states that Charadrius lesche- 

 jiaidti is cominou on the banks of the Chimouraree Lake, where 

 .it breeds. Hence it would be inferred that yE. geoffroyi is the 

 species intended. But in his ' Wanderings of a Naturalist in 

 India/ the same author shows, by the measurement he gives, 

 that it was the allied and smaller species, which he found, with 

 its young, running along the pebbly side of the lake ; for he 

 says, p. 283, '^An adult male measured in the flesh 7 inches. 

 Forehead is black, with a white spot in front of the eye. A black 

 band passes from the bill through the eye ; throat and neck 

 are white ; breast and sides of the neck light rufous.^^ Lesson's 

 name, therefore, was misapplied to the bird, as Dr. Jerdon 

 (B. Ind. iii. p. GIO) has already remarked; for he says that it 

 was the Lesser Sand-Plover (i. e. ^. mongolicus) which Dr. 

 Adams found breeding in Ladakh"^. 



Westward from India the present species extends through 

 Palestine, where it was found in small numbers by Mr. Tristram 

 (Ibis, 1870, pp. 207, 208). In the peninsula of Sinai, too, Mr. 

 J. K. Lord procured specimens ; and Kittlitz, Riippell, and Dr. 

 von Heuglin, all record its presence on the shores of the Red 

 Sea. The last-named author states (Ibis, 1859, p. 345) that 

 it is found on this coast throughout the year (doubtless a mis- 

 take), from as far north as Pelusium on the Mediterranean side ; 

 but he says nothing about its breeding. 



Mr. Blanford, who accomjianied the late expedition to Abys- 

 sinia, procured specimens of ^. geoffroyi at Massowa, and at 

 Zulla, in Annesley Bay; and Dr. Kirk has forwarded skins from 

 Zanzibarf ; so that the species would seem to be generally dis- 

 tributed along the entire length of the east coast of Africa. In 

 South Africa, according to Mr. Layard, it is rare; for he only 

 records a single specimen, killed on the Salt River near Cape 

 Town in 1858. In Madagascar, on the contrary, it is common 



* The late Mr. Strickland appears to have made the same mistake. 

 All the specimens of Ai. mongolicus in his collection at Cambridge are 

 labelled Al. leschenauUi. 



t This species is not included bj^ Dr. Kirk in his list of the birds from 

 the Zambesi region (Ibis, 1864, p. 331). 



