152 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



open flats and grass-lands, where they are found in flocks of 

 from six to twenty in number. They run with great swiftness, 

 and have much the appearance of BurchelFs Courser, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Ayres, who also says that when they rise, their 

 flight resembles that of a Pratincole, and they utter much the 

 same stridulous note of alarm. Their food consists principally 

 of beetles and other small insects, on which they become very 

 fat. 



THE BLACK-BREASTED DOTTERELS. GENUS EUDROMIAS. 



Eudromias, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 544 (1831). 



Type, E. morinellus (Linn.). 



The single representative of this genus is a more heavily- 

 built bird than the species of /Egialitis and Oxyechus, but it 

 has the shorter bill of the latter birds, and holds an intermediate 

 position between them and the species of Ochthodromus. Its 

 peculiar coloration in the full plumage, and its comparatively 

 shorter tarsi distinguish it, and the bare part of the tibia is not 

 so extended as in the genus ^Egialitis. 



I. THE DOTTEREL. EUDROMIAS MORINELLUS. 



Charadrius morinellus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 254 (1766); See- 

 bohm, Brit. B. p. 30, pi. 26, figs. 1-3 (1885). 



Eudromias morinellus, Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 507, pi. 526 

 (1875) ; B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 160 (1883) ; Saunders, 

 ed. Yarr. Brit. B. iii. p. 246 (1883); id. Man. Brit. B. p. 

 521 (1889); Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 234. 



Adult Male. General colour above ashy-brown, streaked with 

 sandy-buff, the feathers being edged with this colour ; wing- 

 coverts like the back, and edged with sandy-buff; bastard- 

 wing, primary-coverts, and quills dusky-brown ; the first pri- 

 mary with a white shaft and white outer web ; rest of the 

 primaries blackish along the outer web and at the ends, the 

 secondaries fringed with whitish, the innermost edged with 

 sandy-buff, and resembling the back ; crown of head blackish- 

 brown, slightly varied with sandy-buff margins to the feathers ; 



