370 CHARADRIID^: ^GIALITIS 



The nest is merely a slight depression on the ground, generally 

 among a few pebbles or stones, and is quite unprotected. The eggs, 

 usually two in number, are laid in October or November in Cape 

 Colony and the Orange River Colony, perhaps a little earlier further 

 north (Mr. Alexander found a nest with three young in down, on 

 August 17, on the Zambesi). They are very large for the size of 

 the bird and measure, on an average, 1/2 x 0'87 ; in colour they 

 are yellowish-white, thickly covered with zigzag lines of yellowish- 

 brown and sepia, and in some cases slightly rubbed with blackish 

 so as almost to conceal the ground colour. 



729. ^Bgialitis venusta. Fischer's Sand Plover. 



Charadrius venustus, Fischer d- Eeichenow, Journ. Ornith. 1884, p. 178, 

 1885, pi. vi, fig. 4; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 189 (1896) ; Eeichenow, \'<>;/. 

 Afr. i., p. 173 (1900). 



^Egialitis venusta, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 286 (1896). 



Description. General colour above very pale slaty-grey, with 

 traces of a lighter collar at the back or the neck; primaries and 

 their coverts dark brown, paler on their inner webs, the shafts white, 

 at least in their middle portion ; some of the inner primaries with a 

 good deal of white on their outer webs ; secondaries white-tipped ; 

 central portion of the rump and upper tail- coverts brown, sides 

 white ; central tail-feathers dark brown, like the wings, lateral ones 

 pure white ; forehead, sides of the face and neck and the whole of 

 the lower parts, including the under wing- and tail-coverts, pure 

 white ; a semi-circular band of rusty chestnut separates the throat 

 from the breast ; quills pale brown below. 



Bill black ; legs and feet greenish-grey. 



Length about 6'6; wing 3-9; tail 1'35 ; tarsus 1-1 ; culmen 0'60. 



This description is drawn up from Mr. Whitehead's specimen, 

 which appears to have been a female. In the male, as described by 

 Reichenow, the chestnut chest band is margined above by black, 

 and is continued up the side of the neck and across the crown, and 

 there is also a distinct black line running from the eye to the base 

 of the beak. 



Distribution. This little Plover was first obtained on the shores 

 of the Salt Lake, near Nguruman, in the interior of German East 

 Africa, by Fischer, in July. Neumann, a few years later, met with 

 it on the Manjara Salt Lake, a little south of Nguruman, in 

 November. Mr. C. F. H. Whitehead recently presented to the 



