374 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



Genus LOBIVANELLUS, StricM. 



721. LOBIVANELLUS ATRONUCHALIS. 



THE BURMESE LAPWING. 



Sarcogramxna atrogularis, SI. J. A. S. B. xxxi. p. 345 (note). Lobivanellus 

 atronuchalis (Bl.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 648 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 576 ; 

 id. S. F. iii. p. 181; Bl. B. Burm. p. 152 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 675; 

 Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 457; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 112; Oates, S. F. x. p. 238 ; 

 Kelham, Ibis, 1882, p. 10. 



Description. Male and female. The whole head, neck and breast black ; 

 a broad band over the ear-coverts white ; a collar on the hind neck white ; 

 back, rump, scapulars, tertiaries, lesser and median coverts brownish 

 grey, glossed with purple on the coverts and with green elsewhere ; upper 

 tail-coverts white; tail basally white, then black and broadly tipped white, 

 except the two centre feathers, which are tipped with pale grey ; greater 

 wing-coverts grey broad] y tipped with white; primaries and secondaries 

 black, the bases white, increasing in extent till the last secondary is 

 nearly wholly white ; under plumage from the breast white. 



Terminal half of bill black ; the remainder, the eyelids and wattles red ; 

 iris crimson ; legs and feet pale yellow ; claws black. 



Length 13 inches, tail 4' 5, wing 8-5, tarsus 3, bill from gape 1-3. The 

 female is of the same size. 



This species is very closely allied to L. indicus ; but in that bird the 

 white bands over the ear-coverts are produced and meet on the hind neck. 

 Mr. Blyth when describing the present species named it S. atrogularis, appa- 

 rently by an oversight. Dr. Jerdon appears to have been the first writer 

 to change the designation to atronuchalis , very properly attaching Mr. 

 Blyth' s name to this alteration. 



The Burmese Lapwing is very abundant throughout the whole of 

 Burmah and Karennee. 



It extends northwards as far as Bharao in Independent Burmah, to the 

 east as far as Cochin China and southwards down to Singapore. 



This Lapwing is very well known to Europeans, owing to the per- 

 sistent manner in which it cries " Did he do it " when disturbed. It is 

 generally found in couples, occasionally in small flocks of four or six. It 

 is not partial to watery localities, being more frequently met with in waste 

 land and dry fields. There are few places, however, wet or dry, from 

 which it is absent. I have frequently found the eggs in April and May ; 

 usually four in number, they are deposited on the bare ground in paddy- 



