366 CHAEADBIID^E 



The following are localities : Cape Colony Cape division, 

 September, April (S. A. Mus.), Knysna, November, April (Bt. Mus. 

 and Victorin), Port Elizabeth (Penther), East London, summer 

 (Wood) ; Natal Durban (Shelley) ; Transvaal Pienaar Eiver 

 bridge, near Pretoria, April (Penther) ; German South-west Africa 

 Walvisch Bay, October (Andersson) ; Portuguese East Africa In- 

 hambane, September (Francis). 



Habits. Little has been written about the habits of the Ringed 

 Plover in South Africa ; it is essentially a shore bird, and is found 

 about mud flats and sandbanks, where it runs very swiftly and 

 searches for small worms, insects and sand-hoppers, adding a good 

 deal of grit and sand to aid digestion. Its note is a melodious 

 whistle. The nest, not hitherto found in South Africa and pro- 

 bably not likely to be found, is merely a shallow cavity in the sand 

 usually lined with small stones. The eggs, four in number, are 

 pear-shaped and of a stone-buff colour spotted with black and 

 measuring T4 x TO. 



727. ^gialitis alexandrina. Kentish Plover. 



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

 B. Afr. i, p. 189 (1896) ; Reiclicnoiu, Vog. Afr. i, p. 169 (1900). 



Charadrius cantianus, Lath., Ind. Orn. Siippl. p. Ixvi (1801) ; SceloJim, 

 Geogr. Dist. Charadr. p. 168, with fig. (1888). 



uEgialites alexandrinus, Giirncy, in Andersson's B. Damaral. p. 272 

 (1872) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 275 (1896). 



JEgialitis cantianus, Dresser, B. Eur. vii, p. 483, pi. 523 (1876). 



Description. Adult. General colour above pale earthy brown ; 

 forehead and eyebrow white, separated from the crown by a black 

 patch on the fore part of the head ; hind neck with a white collar 

 continuous with the white of the lower surface ; primaries and their 

 coverts dark brown with white shafts, the inner ones with a good 

 deal of white to their bases, and the secondaries with white tips as 

 well ; central tail-feathers brown, lateral ones white, intermediate 

 ones smoky ; below white throughout, a black line from the base of 

 the bill running through the eye to the ear-coverts, and a black patch 

 on either side of the breast. 



Iris brown ; bill black, dusky flesh on the base of the lower 

 mandible ; legs dusky black. 



Length 6-0; wing 4-10 ; tail 1-75 ; tarsus 1-20; culmen 0-30. 



