98  MR.H.E. DRESSER ON HYPOLAIS CALIGATA, ETC. [Feb. 16, 
dromias morinellus, but is darker and rather more green in tinge of 
ground-colour than the general run of those eggs, besides being much 
less spotted and more oval in shape. It is, as will be seen, warm 
buff, with the faintest greenish tinge, and sparingly spotted with 
black, the markings being comparatively small and not large blotches 
asin those of E. morinellus. In size it measures 1°25 by 1-075 inch, 
and is oval in shape, very slightly tapering towards one end. 
It is especially interesting to obtain not only the egg of this 
species but the bird itself from the locality whence it was originally 
described. It will be recollected that in ‘ The Ibis’ for 1870, p. 201, 
Mr. Harting gave a full account of this species and of its close ally 
Charadrius veredus, Gould; and in 1872 (Ibis, 1872, p. 144) Dr. 
Otto Finsch published some notes on these two species, in which he 
sought to show that the bird referred to by Mr. Harting under the 
name of Eudromias asiaticus should stand as C. damarensis, and 
that his Z. veredus is the true C. asiaticus of Pallas. These speci- 
mens, however, which I now exhibit, tend to prove that Mr. Harting 
was quite right in his identification of Pallas’s C. asiaticus ; but all the 
distinctive characters of the two species as given by him (Ibis, 1870, 
p- 212) do not always hold good. For instance he states that all the 
primaries of C. asiaticus have the shafts mesially white. This is 
certainly the case in some specimeus I possess, and also in the female 
obtained from the Kirghis steppes ; but the male has the shaft of the 
first primary only white, almost all the rest being as dark as the web 
of the feather. 
The best distinctive character besides measurements is the colour 
of the axillaries, which in C. asiaticus are invariably white, and in 
C. veredus dark smoke-grey. I cannot but think that there is some 
mistake in the colour of the tarsus of C. asiaticus as given by 
Mr. Harting, who, both in his description and in the plate, gives it as 
being greenish ochreous. Now Pallas expressly states that the colour 
of the tarsus is yellowish ; and in his plate (Zoogr. Ross.-As. ii. pl. 
58) he figures the bird with the legs ochreous yellow. Ido not know 
where Mr. Harting obtained the particulars he gives as to the colour 
of the tarsus being greenish ; but it is possible that the description 
may have been taken from a young bird, and that the young have 
the tarsus darker than the old birds ; or else, as in some other waders, 
the colour of the tarsus may vary at different seasons of the year. 
I observe that Mr. Harting follows Keyserling and Blasius in 
referring both C. asiaticus and C. veredus to the genus Ludro- 
mias; but I have grave doubts as to this being correct. In Eudro- 
mias (the type of which is #. morinellus) the female is more richly 
coloured than the male, whereas in both the above species the female 
lacks the rich nuptial dress of the male and is not unlike its mate in 
winter dress. Professor Newton has pointed out to me that the 
sternum of FL. morinellus differs greatly from that of true Charadrius ; 
and it will be interesting to ascertain, so soon as a skeleton of either 
C. veredus or C. asiaticus can be procured, whether these species 
assimilate to Hudromias or to true Charadrius in that respect. 
Meanwhile I think it advisable to refer them to the latter group. 
