134 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CHAEADEIID^l. Genus 



Subfamily GHARADRIIN&. 



KENTISH PLOVER. 



^GIALITIS CANTIANUS (Latham). 



? Charadrius alexandrinus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 258 (1766). 



Charadrius cantianus (Latham), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 125 (1852) ; Seebohin, Hist. 

 Brit. B. iii. p. 25 (1885); Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 122, pi. 40 (1896). 



/Egialitis cantianus (Latham), Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 483, pi. 523 (1876) ; Yarrell, 

 Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 267 (3883) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 259 (1893) ; 

 Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxx. (1895). 



/Ggialitis alexandrina (Linn.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 166 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 275 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British : The Kentish Plover is one of the 

 most local of British birds, its only known breeding places being upon the sandy 

 portions of the coasts of Kent and Sussex. Even here the greed of collectors is 

 rapidly exterminating it as a nesting species. It is a summer visitor to the 

 British Islands, and has occurred accidentally only in all districts except the two 

 above mentioned. It has been observed on the east coast of England as far 

 north as Flamborough, and on the south coast as far west as Cornwall. It is 

 unknown in Scotland, and of very rare occurrence in Ireland. It breeds freely 

 upon the Channel Islands. Foreign : The Kentish Plover breeds only upon the 

 coasts and salt lakes of the Palsearctic region ; Ethiopian and parts of the 

 Oriental regions in winter. It is a summer visitor to the coasts of Western 

 Europe from the south of Sweden to France, but rare on the Baltic coasts. It is 

 a resident on the coasts and lagoons of the Spanish Peninsula, the Azores, 

 Canaries, Madeira, and both the north and south coasts of the Mediterranean. 

 Eastwards it visits in summer the salt marshes of South Kussia, the shores of 

 the Black, Caspian, and Aral Seas, the salt lakes of Turkestan, South Dauria, 

 and Mongolia. The migratory European individuals winter on the coasts of 

 Africa, south to the Iiitertropical realm ; whilst the migratory Asiatic individuals 

 winter on the Mekran coast, in India, Ceylon, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, 

 China, and Japan. 



Allied forms. Mgialitis minutus, an inhabitant, so far as is at present 

 known, of the southern shores of the Red Sea and Ceylon. Differs from 



