RHINOPTILUS. 213 



Cursorms bitorqtiatus, Seebohm, Ibis, 1880, p. 119 ; id. Charadr. 



p, 247, pi. xiii. 

 The Double-banded Plover, Jerdon ; Adava-wuta-titti, Tel. 



Coloration. Crown dark brown, with a buff median band ; fore- 

 head, lores, and long broad supercilia, passing completely round 

 the nape, white ; a brown band streaked with black beneath the 

 eye, extending over the ear-coverts ; upper parts brown ; wing- 

 coverts slightly paler; across the wing is a broad white band 

 formed of the outer median and the greater coverts ; primary- 

 coverts, primaries, and most of the secondaries black, a broad 

 white band crossing obliquely the first two primaries near the 

 end, a large white spot on the 3rd primary and a small round spot 

 on the 4th ; inner webs of secondaries chiefly white, and white 

 edgings to the outer webs of the brown tertiaries ; upper tail- 

 coverts white ; tail blackish brown, the feathers white at the base 

 and with white spots at the tips, the amount of white increasing 

 on the outer feathers ; chin and throat buffy white, passing on 

 the fore neck into pale chestnut, followed by two narrow white 

 bands, both dark-edged behind, the posterior in front also ; the 

 two divided by a much broader brown gorget ; remainder of lower 

 parts creamy white. 



Bill blackish at the tips of both mandibles, pale yellow at the 

 base and as far as the nostrils ; gape yellow ; iris umber-brown ; 

 legs pale yellowish white with a fleshy tinge, soles flesh-coloured, 

 nails horny. 



Length 10-25 ; tail 2*5 ; wing 6*5; tarsus 2'7; bill from gape 

 1-05. 



Distribution. Forest country from the Grodavari valley to the 

 neighbourhood of Madras. Jerdon discovered this species near 

 Nellore and Cuddapah, and I met with it close to Sironcha on the 

 G-odavari and again near Bhadrachalam, where however it was 

 very far from common. This bird must have a very restricted 

 range, as no other observer is known to have met with it. Neither 

 Jerdon nor Bail saw it in Bastar. 



Habits, fyc. I first saw three birds together in May 1867 ; 

 afterwards, in March 1871, I twice found pairs, and I succeeded 

 in each case in shooting one, a male. The birds did not appear 

 on dissection to be breeding. They were in thin forest or 

 high scrub, never in open ground, and I never saw any on hills. 

 Their appearance on the ground is Courser-like, but the flight 

 is more rapid, more like that of Sarciophorus. Jerdon states 

 that this bird occasionally utters a plaintive cry. The eggs are 

 unknown. 



