150 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



structure is made of dried grass, which, with perhaps a few 

 dead leaves of the dwarf willow, are arranged in a circular 

 saucer-shaped form, about four or five inches across. 



Eggs. Four in number, very similar to those of the Euro- 

 pean Golden Plover, but slightly smaller, the markings being 

 precisely similar to those of the last-named bird, the black 

 blotches being confluent and generally near the larger end, 

 while the underlying grey markings are scarcely perceptible. 

 Axis, i '85-2 '05 inches ; diam., i*27-i'35. 



THE RED-BREASTED DOTTERELS. GENUS 

 OCHTHODROMUS. 



Ochthodromus, Reichenb. Av. Syst. Nat. p. xviii. (1852). 

 Type, O. wilsoni (Ord). 



In the present genus, and in the Sand-Plovers, there is no 

 specially donned black breast in summer, as in the Grey and 

 Golden Plovers. Of all the species now to be considered, the 

 Dotterel (Eudromias morimllus) is the only one which has 

 black on the under surface. In the genus Ochthodromus the 

 bill is much stouter than in the smaller species of Sand-Plovers, 

 belonging to the genus jEgialitis, and most of the species 

 have a cinnamon-coloured band across the chest in summer 

 plumage. 



I. THE ASIATIC DOTTEREL. OCHTHODROMUS ASIATICUS. 



Charadrius asiaticus, Pallas, Reis. Russ. Reichs. ii. p. 715 



(i773)- 

 ^Egialitis asiatica, Dresser, B. Ear. vii. p. 479, pis. 520, fig. i, 



522 (1878) ; Butler, Ibis, 1890, p. 463 ; Southwell, P. Z. S. 



1890, p. 461 ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxi. (1892). 

 Ochthodromus asiaticus, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 23. 



Adult Male in Summer Plumage. General colour above brown, 

 without any rufous collar on the hind-neck; forehead and 

 sides of face white, with no black on the forehead or ear- 

 coverts ; under surface of body white, with a broad band of bright 

 chestnut across the fore-neck, with a narrow black band skirt- 

 ing the lower edge of the rufous neck-band ; quills dark brown, 



