GLABEOLID^E. 209 



the back has become black the upper parts often retain a pearly- 

 grey tint. 



Bill black ; irides deep brown ; legs and feet pale glaucous blue 

 (Hume). 



Length 16; tail 2-8; wing 8-25; tarsus 3'7 ; bill from gape 

 2-75. 



Fig. 46. Head of D. ardeola. . 



Distribution. Asiatic and African shores of the Indian Ocean 

 west of the Malay Peninsula, including the Persian Griilf and 

 Red Sea. Local throughout the shores of India and Ceylon and 

 on the islands of the Bay of Bengal, the Laccadives, &c. 



Habits, fyc. The Crab-Plover keeps to the sea-shore or the 

 margin of salt lakes, and is found as a rule in small or large 

 flocks, sometimes much scattered. It feeds chiefly on crabs. It 

 runs actively and flies well, occasionally uttering a low, rather 

 musical call. This bird breeds in the Persian Gulf and in Ceylon 

 about May, and lays a single egg at the end of a hole in sand near 

 the shore. The hole is dug by the bird obliquely in the form of 

 a bow curving up towards the end, which is about 4 feet from the 

 entrance ; there is no lining. The egg is pure white, much like 

 that of a Shearwater, and remarkably large for the size of the 

 bird, measuring 2-54 by T77. 



Family GLAREOLID^E. 



Schizorhinal (with the exception of Pluvianus) ; nostrils im- 

 pervious, oval, more or less protected by membrane, situated in a 

 basal depression, not a groove ; no basipterygoid processes ; cervical 

 vertebra 15 ; middle toe pectinated ; tarsus transversely shielded 

 in front and behind. 



Eggs coloured much like those of Plovers, buff or stone-coloured, 

 spotted and blotched with black or brown, but more roundly oval 

 in shape and less pointed at the smaller end. 



This family, which is confined to the Eastern hemisphere, com- 

 prises the Coursers and Pratincoles, which form subfamilies thus 

 distinguished : 



a. No hind toe ; tarsus long, about ^ wing . . Cursoriince, p. 210. 



b. A hind toe ; tarsus moderate, about 1 wing. Olareolince, p. 214. 

 YOL. iv. p 



