244 CHAEADRIID.i:. 



Asia as far as Lake Baikal, wintering chiefly in Africa. A 

 migratory bird, and a rare and occasional visitor to N.W. India. 

 One specimen was obtained at Sultanpur, south of Delhi, by 

 Mr. Chill in November 1878, and a second at Gilgit by Dr. Scully 

 in October 1879. 



1449. JEgialitis placida. The Long-billed Hinged Plover. 



Cliaradrius placidus, Gray, Cat. Mam. 8fc. Coll. Hodgs. 2nd ed. 

 p. 70 (1863) ; Hurting, Ibis, 1873, p. 326 ; Seebohm, Charadr. 



P-. 1 ??' Jf. 



./Egialitis hiaticula, apud Bh/tli, Ibis, 1867, p. 165, nee Linn. 



Eudromias tenuirostris, Hume, S. F. i, pp. 17, 417. 495 ; Blanf. 

 Ibis, 1873, p. 217. 



^Egialitis placida, Hume fy Dav. S. F. \\, p. 455; Hume, Cat. 

 no. 848 bis; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 351; Hume $ Inglis, S. F. ix, 

 p. 258 ; Hume, S. 'F. xi, p. 314 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 262. 



This species resembles the last two, but is larger than either, 

 and has a much larger bill. The whole forehead is white, lores 

 (in winter) brown, and some brown is intermixed with the black 

 of the collar ; the shafts of all primaries are brown, even of the 

 first primary ; only a small portion near the end is lighter in 

 colour in some skins, not as a rule. 



Bill black, extreme base of lower mandible yellow ; irides dark 

 brown, margin of eyelids yellow; feet yellow (Seullti). 



Length 8' 75 ; tail 3 ; wing 5*5 ; tarsus 1*3 ; bill from gape '9. 



Distribution. Eastern Asia : Manchuria, Corea, Japan, China, 

 and North-eastern India. Specimens have been obtained from 

 time to time in Nepal, Sikhim, Bhutan, Assam, and Cachar. 



Habits, $\ This is probably a migratory bird, and visits India 

 in the winter only. It has been met with in river-beds. 



In June, 1839 or 1840, Jerdon obtained at the edge of the 

 Pulicat Lake, near Madras, a Plover which he described as 

 Charadrius russatus (Madr. Jour. L. S. xii, p. 213). This was 

 subsequently identified by Blyth. with the Australian JE. nigri- 

 frons, Cuv. (^E. melanops, Vieill.), and the skin is probably still 

 in the Museum at Calcutta. No specimen has ever since been 

 found in India, and the species was omitted by Jerdon from the 

 4 Birds of India,' a circumstance not improbably clue to his 

 suspecting that some mistake had been made. Blyth (Ibis, 1867, 

 p. 165) called attention to the omission, and the name has been 

 restored by Hume (S. F. vii, p. 438 ; Cat. no. 850 bis). I cannot 

 but regard the occurrence of the specimen in India as fortuitous, 

 and I do not think the species should be included in the list of 

 Indian birds. 



JE. melanops may be recognized by its deep claret-red scapulars, 

 by its having the forehead and middle of the sinciput, the lores, 

 and a broad band from them extending round the back of the neck 

 all black, and also a broad pectoral gorget with a pointed extension 

 backwards. Length 5-8 ; tail 2-1 ; wing 4'3 ; tarsus 1. 



