THE SPUR-WINGED LAPWING. 373 



Genus HOPLOPTEKUS, Bonap. 



720. HOPLOPTERUS VENTRALIS. 

 THE SPUR-WINGED LAPWING. 



Charadrius ventralis, Wa<jL Syst. Nat. Av., Charadrius, sp. 11. Hoplopterus 

 ventralis, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 650 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 578 ; id. S. F. iii. 

 p. 181 j SI B. Burm. p. 153; David et Oust. Ois. Chine,^. 423 ; Anders. Yunnan 

 Exped. p. 675 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 457 ; Cripps, S. F. yii. p. 300 ; Hume, 

 S. F. viii. p. 112 ; Sctdly, S. F. viii. p. 352 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 196 ; Gates, 

 S. F. x. p. 238. 



Description. Male and female. Forehead, crown and the long crest 

 front of the face, chin and a broad band down the throat black; 

 remainder of the sides of the head and sides of the neck and the lower 

 plumage white ; a broad brown band across the breast and a narrower 

 black one across the abdomen ; back, scapulars, tertiaries, rump, and the 

 lesser and median wing-coverts next the body light brown ; upper tail- 

 coverts white ; tail basally white, terminally black ; coverts next the edge 

 of the wing black ; greater coverts white ; primaries black, the bases 

 white ; secondaries chiefly white. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black ; legs leaden brown ; claws black. 



Length 12 inches, tail 3'4, wing 7'8, tarsus 2'5, bill from gape 1'4. The 

 female is of the same size. 



The Spur- winged Lapwing is generally distributed over the whole of 

 Burmah and Karennee and is a constant resident. 



It occurs over a considerable portion of the Indian peninsula, not, how- 

 ever, extending to the Indus river. It is found in the Indo-Burmese 

 countries and in Cochin China. It will probably be met with throughout 

 Southern China, but hitherto it has only been recorded from the island of 

 Hainan. 



This Lapwing is found singly or in pairs on sand-banks and the flat 

 shingly shores of the larger rivers and creeks. It runs with great speed, 

 stopping suddenly and bobbing its head at frequent intervals. I have not 

 found its nest ; but in India it breeds in March and April, depositing four 

 eggs in a depression in the sand. 



