336 ESACIN2E. 



Bill black ; irides deep-brown ; legs reddish-black. 



Head, including the long crest, face as far as the middle of 

 the eye, and a broad band from the base of the lower mandible 

 down the chin and throat, glossy black; a white line from 

 behind the eye, bordering the black and meeting its fellow behind ; 

 sides of the back and neck pale-ashy, gradually passing into the 

 brownish-ashy of the back, scapulars and wing -co verts, and 

 forming a pectoral band, between which and the black throat 

 is a broad white space ; quills black, white at their base, the white 

 increasing in extent to the last secondary, which is merely black- 

 tipped ; primary and secondary-coverts white ; the shoulder black ; 

 winglet white ; tail-feathers white, with a broad black tip ; 

 upper tail-coverts white ; abdomen white, with an interrupted 

 black band in the centre. 



The occurrence of the Spur- wing Lapwing within our limits 

 is doubtful ; a specimen is recorded from Upper Sind. 



SUB-FAMILY, Esacinae. 



Of large size ; bill very strong and thick, dilated both above 

 and below, and compressed ; gonys more or less strongly angu- 

 lated ; no hind-toe ; legs long. 



GENUS, Esacus, Less. 



Bill long, sub-recurved, strong, convex above, considerably 

 compressed ; the base thick and rounded ; edges sharp, notched 

 towards the tip ; nares broad, linear, advanced, in a wide groove 

 that extends from the base to the tip of the culmen ; otherwise 

 as in (Edicnemus. 



Esacus recurvirostris, Cuv. 



858. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 652; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 . Stray Feathers, Vol. IY, p. 1 4 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 

 IX, p. 427; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 231; 

 Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 133. 



THE LARGE STONE PLOVER. 



Length, 19 to 20; expanse, 36; wing, 11; tail, 4 -5 ; tarsus, 

 3-25 ; bill at front, 275 ; bill from gape, 3'5. 



Bill greenish-yellow, black at tip ; irides bright pale-yellow ; 

 legs yellow. 



General color above brownish sky-grey ; forehead white ; eye- 

 brow, ear-coverts, and moustaches blackish ; shoulders, winglet, 

 some of the outermost wing-coverts, quills, and tip of tail, 

 blackish; wings and tail irregularly but broadly banded with 

 white ; beneath, with the lower surface of wings and tail, white. 



^ The Large Stone Plover is a common permanent resident in 

 Sind ; it occurs much more rarely in the other portions of our 

 district. It breeds about March. The eggs, two in number, are 

 deposited in a depression in the sand in river beds ; they are 



