468 CHARADRIIDJE. 



and devour small mammalia and small reptiles, for which 

 their stout frame and large beak seem sufficiently powerful. 

 Mr. Selby and the Rev. L. Jenyns found the remains 

 of large coleopterous insects, of the genus Carabus, in the 

 stomach of the Great Plover ; and these beetles, it will 

 be recollected, do not begin to move about till the close 

 of day. 



The Great Plover annually visits Germany, and is abun- 

 dant in France, Spain, Provence, Sardinia, Italy, Sicily, 

 and, southward, to Africa, Madeira, and even to southern 

 Africa ; Dr. Andrew Smith having obtained specimens 

 during the progress of the exploring expedition from the 

 Cape northwards. 



Eastward it is found in Corfu, Turkey, and the Grecian 

 Archipelago. Mr. Strickland, when at Smyrna, was told 

 that it occurs in Asia Minor, of which there is little doubt, 

 the Zoological Society having received specimens from 

 Trebizond, and the Russian naturalist, M. Hohenacker, 

 having also found it on the plains between the Black and 

 the Caspian Seas. Lieut. Burgess records its inhabiting 

 the Deccan, and Mr. Blyth has obtained it in India. 



In the adult bird, the beak is black at the point, the 

 base greenish yellow ; the irides golden yellow ; the top of 

 the head and back of the neck pale wood-brown, each 

 feather with a streak of black in the centre ; from the base 

 of the upper mandible a light-coloured streak passes back- 

 ward under the eye to the ear-coverts ; from the base 

 of the lower mandible a brown streak passes below the 

 light-coloured one to the ends of the ear-coverts ; the 

 feathers of the back, wing-coverts, tertials, and upper tail- 

 coverts, pale brown, each feather with a dark brownish 

 black longitudinal streak in the line of the shaft; wing- 

 primaries almost black, the first and second with a white 

 patch towards the end ; the tail-feathers with the basal 



