Birds of the Pamir Range. 73 



swamps near rivers and lakes, and is particularly common 

 near Kara-kul and Ran-kul at 12,000 to 13,000 feet, where 

 it breeds. At the commencement of August the old birds 

 gathered into flocks and departed, leaving the young behind ; 

 and by the 7th September they too had disappeared. 



Besides the Pamir (with the Alai steppe) I know only the fol- 

 lowing summer haunts of C. mongolicus, viz. : — the southern 

 parts of Trans-Baikalian Siberia, near the Mongolian border 

 on the rivers Oxus and Argun, where it was found by Pallas, 

 Radde, and Dybowsky ; and the mouth of the river Uda, in the 

 Sea of Ockotsk, where it was found by MiddendorfFin summer, 

 but not breeding. It was not obtained by Prjevalsky in 

 Southern Mongolia, nor on Lake Khu-khu-nor ; and it is also 

 wanting in the collections made by the expeditions of M. 

 Potanon and Col, Pevtzov in West Mongolia, where, however, 

 it may be occasionally found. 



90. tEgialitis cantiana (Lath.). 



^. alexandrina, Hasselq., var. dealbata, Swinhoe. 



The Kentish Plover was scarce on the Pamir in August, 

 during migration. One female was obtained there, and also 

 in Ferghana, where it breeds. I observed and collected in 

 Ferghana the true ^. cantiana, and a closely allied form, 

 which I took for its eastern representative, ^, dealbata *. 



They differ in the dark markings behind the eye. On com- 

 paring two of Swinhoe^s original specimens of ^. dealbata, de- 

 termined by himself, with some of ^. cantiana in my collection 

 from France, the Caspian coast, the Aral Sea, and Ferghana, 

 I found these markings identical in both forms, and the true 

 M. dealbata differing only in its larger bill, larger white tips 

 on the greater wing-coverts, and a more narrow and crescent- 

 shaped black patch between the white forehead and the rufous 

 crown ; but this last character varies in ^. cantiana itself. 



* In my Eussian text, written and printed at Tashkent, without the 

 necessary works of reference, this eastern representative is misnamed JE. 

 placida, instead of ^. dealbata; but the true M.iilacida is more closely 

 allied to jE. hiatictda and JE. Jluviatilis than to A£. cantiana, whereas the 

 Ferghana bird, misnamed by me ^. placida, only slightly differs from 

 A£. cantiana, and Aery much from JE.Jltimatilis. 



