20 BRITISH BIRDS. 



CHARADRIUS HIATICULA AND CHARADRIUS MAJOR. 

 RINGED PLOVER and GREATER RINGED PLOVER. 



(PLATE 26.) 



It is impossible to ignore the fact that there are two races of the Ringed 

 Plover. A small dark race, with somewhat slender legs and feet, with a 

 length of wing varying from 4' 8 to 5 '2 inch, is a migratory bird and very 

 widely distributed ; whilst a larger paler race, with stouter legs and feet, 

 and with a length of wing varying from 5*0 to 5'5 inch, appears to be a 

 resident in the British Islands and on the adjoining coasts. Many writers 

 have remarked that these two races, like the large and small races of the 

 Dunlin, migrate in separate flocks and have different areas of distribution. 

 So far as I have been able to ascertain, the Ringed Plovers breeding in the 

 British Islands and Western Europe lay larger eggs than those breeding 

 elsewhere. The small dark race arrives on our shores late in spring 

 and does not remain here to breed, but soon passes northwards on migration 

 to its breeding-grounds in Arctic Europe. The two races can only be sub- 

 specifically distinct, as they not only intergrade in colour, but large 

 examples of the eastern exceed in length of wing small examples of the 

 western race. The synonymy of the two forms is as follows : 



CHAKADRIUS HIATICULA. 

 RINGED PLOVER. 



Pluvialis torquata minor, Briss. Orn. v. p. 63, pi. v. fig. 2 (1760). 



Charadrius hiaticula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 253 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum 



Naumann, Schkgel, Temminck, (Dresser), (Sounders), &c. 

 ./Egialitis hiaticula (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 558. 

 Hiaticula annulata, Gray, List Gen. B. p. 65 (1840). 



Hiaticula hiaticula (Linn.\ ( 



, " ? Licht. Nomencl. Av. p. 94 (1854). 



Hiaticula arabs, 



-(Egialites auritus, Heugl. Syst. Uebers. p. 56 (1856). 



CHARADRIUS HIATICULA MAJOR. 

 GREATER RINGED PLOVER. 



Pluvialis torquata, Briss. Orn. v. p. 60, pi. v. fig. 1 (1760). 



Charadrius torquatus (Briss?), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. fyc. Brit. Mus. p. 28 (1816, 



nee Linn.~). 



Hiaticula torquata (Briss.), Gray, List Sp. Birds in Brit. Mus. iii. p. 68 (1844, nee Linn.). 

 Charadrius major, Tristram,jide Gray, Hand-l. B. ii. p. 15 (1870). 



