/EGIALITIS. 585 



Winter Plumage. Forehead yellowish white, streaked and spotted with 

 pale brown and grey ; head on the sides greyish brown ; the crown, back of 

 neck and nape greyish brown with purple reflections and- yellow angular spots 

 on the edges and tips of the feathers ; chin and throat whitish ; breast dusky 

 greyish white, tinged yellow, and spotted with darker grey ; axillary plumes 

 white ; greater and lesser wing coverts greyish black, the spots paler and the 

 feathers of the greater coverts tipped with white ; the tail is deep brown, and 

 barred obliquely with yellowish or yellowish white; upper tail coverts like the 

 back. In summer it undergoes the same change as longipes, but the yellow 

 becomes brighter, and the lower parts intense black, except the sides of the 

 neck, breast and body, which are yellowish white, with dark and dusky 

 patches or marblings ; primaries and secondaries dusky brown, the shafts of 

 the first five white anteriorly. 



Length, lo'S to I I'S inches ; wing 7-5 ; bill black ; irides deep brown. 



Hab. Sind, Punjab, and Beloochistan. 



This species was first entered in the Sind list by Mr. Hume with a query. 

 Since then all the specimens obtained by myself and others were longipes. In 

 my Handbook mention was made that pluvialis would be found to occur, 

 Mr. Blanford having recorded it from only 200 miles further west at Gwadur. 

 Mr. Brooks, Stray Feathers, viii., 489, has since then recorded it from near 

 Sehwan. Mr. Hume, in vol.i.,p. 229 of Stray Feathers, points out the difference 

 between/#/z/z = longtpes&nd virginicus from America. Pie says, "pluvialis 

 is at once distinguished by its pure white axillary plumes, which mfulvus are 

 brownish or smoke grey. Fulvits and virginicus differ chiefly in their relative 

 proportions, the former being always smaller." The following are the dimen- 

 sions of the three given by Harting : 



Bill. Wing. Tarsus. 



C. virginicus ro 7 to 7*4 1-6 



C. fulvus 0*8 to o'9 6-4 to 6-6 1-5 



C. pluvialis 0*9 7*5. I '4 



Gen. jEgialitis.ito*v. 



Bill slender, grooved on upper mandible for two-thirds its length ; front of 

 bill raised ; upper mandible slightly the longer ; ist quill longest. All the 

 Sand Plovers are more or less gregarious in their habits, and feed either on 

 ploughed lands, meadows, edges of marshes and ponds, sandbanks, mud 

 lagoons and banks of rivers and tanks. They run with some speed, making 

 a dead stop now and again to pick up a worm, mollusc, small Crustacea or 

 other insects on which they feed. Nearly all are migratory. Eggs, generally 

 4 in number, are of a stone yellow or greenish colour, richly blotched. 



1259. ^Egialitis GeofFroyi, Wagl. t Syst. Av. Charadrius sp. 19 ; 

 Jerd., B. Ind. iii. p. 638 ; Harting, Ibis, 1870, p. 378, pi. xi. ; Salvad., Ucc. 

 Born. p. 318; David el Oust. Ois, Chine, p. 426; Dresser, B. Eur. vii. 

 VOL. II.-76 



