138 MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE PLOVERS. __ [Mar. 10, 
This little Plover is a common winter visitant to all parts of the 
China coast. I procured it as far south as Hainan. In 1860 1 
found it breeding at Talien Bay; and lately I saw it in May up the 
Yangtsze, in Szechuen. I have looked through my series, and find 
them all of one species, identical with birds shot in England. A 
specimen from India is also the same. Jerdon gives a smaller race, 
Bg. minutus (Pall.), as occurring also in India. This I have never 
seen in China. 
A, JAGIALITES CANTIANUS (Lath.). 
The true Kentish Plover comes down the Chinese coast in winter 
in great numbers; and I have a good series of them. They vary 
somewhat in the length of their bills; so I find does the home bird. 
I have one shot at Amoy in April, which is in full summer plumage 
and not to be distinguished from an English bird shot in May, 
kindly lent me by Mr. Harting for comparison. I have also skins 
from India sent me by Mr. Blyth. Amoy ¢: Bill in front -65 inch ; 
wing 4:4; tarse 1°05. Bill black. Legs deep leaden-grey. 
5. ANGIALITES DEALBATUS, Sp. Nov. 
Under this name I propose to distinguish the form of Kentish 
Plover that is resident on the south coast of China, including For- 
mosa and Hainan (see P. Z. S. 1863, p. 52). 
Bill black, with an ochreous-yellow spot at base of lower mandible. 
Legs light yellowish brown or flesh-colour. In other respects like 
a washed-out Ag. cantianus. 
¢. Bill *75 inch; wing 4°45; tarse 1°07. 
The male in summer plumage always has the latero-pectoral 
patch more or less black, as also the band over the white forehead. 
The loral streak sometimes shows in pale rufescent brown, some- 
times in black spots, and is rarely entirely wanting. The crown has 
generally some rufescence ; and a rufescent tinge often washes over 
the back. 
The female in July has a slight rufescence on the head, and a 
rufescent brown breast-patch. She seldom acquires any of the dark 
markings of the male. 
I procured five specimens of this resident race in Hainan in March, 
and they were all marked as in summer. In Amoy they generally 
lose the dark markings in winter. 
I have hitherto merely marked this bird as a variety of the Kentish 
Plover; but as Cassin has separated a similar local form found in 
California and on the South-American coast, I think it as well to 
distinguish our bird. The bill and the legs afford the only reliable 
characters for discrimination. No one can doubt the fact of our 
local form being derived from 4g. cantianus, and that the influence 
of climate and other local causes have effected a change in the con- 
stitution of the bird. It affects to acquire the breeding-plumage of 
its progenitor, but its system is apparently too weak ; yet it breeds 
and multiplies, and seems otherwise a healthy race. In some spe- 
cimens of true 4g. cantianus IJ notice a paleness at the base of the 
