200 ^GIALITIS HIATICULA, Lin. 



nal wliifce wing bands that characterise hiaticula, but both of 

 these have the shaft of the first primary white or whitish to 

 the base, while in hiaticula nearly the basal half of the shaft 

 of the first primary is deep brown. Then both species have the 

 legs dusky greenish or plumbeous, while in hiaticula even the 

 young birds appear to have the legs yellow, though it may be 

 dingy. 



Again, cantianus is smaller and has a wing never, I think, 

 exceeding 4*6 ; and moreover cantianus has the two outer feathers 

 on each side all but pure white and without any black spot 

 on them, and the whole tail wants the conspicuous subterminal 

 blackish band which characterise the lateral tail feathers of 

 duhia and hiaticula ; moreover cantia7ia entirely wants the more 

 or less pronounced (according to age and season) black band 

 behind the white nuchal collar, which black band is more or 

 less traceable in even quite immature hiaticula. 



In mongola the wing runs up to 5'1, but then mongola 

 never has any white nuchal collar, and has a much larger bill 

 age for age, and it never has any black on the breast or round 

 the back of the neck ; and, though even its outermost tail 

 feather is shaded on the inner web towards the tip with grey 

 brown, the entire tail wants the conspicuous blackish brown 

 subterminal band, characteristic of hiaticula, duhia, &c. 



I know that these little Plovers are difficult to discriminate, 

 but if the above remarks are carefully borne in mind, it will 

 be impossible to confound hiaticula, even in its immature state, 

 with the corresponding stage of either mongola, cantiana, 

 duhia or minuta, and as for geoffroyi, that is so much larger 

 with a tarsus 1"5 to VQ and dusky greenish, and a bill nearly 

 an inch in length, that this cannot be mistaken for hiaticula. 



As for both asiatica and vereda they, too, are much longer- 

 legged birds, with the tarsi 1"5 in the one and I'S in the other, 

 and with no white on the wing, so that I think that any of my 

 readers, who may chance to meet with hiaticula in future, 

 ought to have no difficulty in identifying it. 



There is indeed another species, ^gialitis nigrifrons, of which 

 Jerdon obtained a single specimen at the Pulicat Lake, near 

 Madras ; but this appears to be always characterized by the 

 more or less maroon or chestnut color of the scapulars, and the 

 arrangement of the black and white about the head is quite 

 diflPerent to that of any of our other species. It has been fully 

 described, S. F., VII., 439. 



Lastly, there is a tiny species, yEgialitis peroni, known to 

 occur in Borneo, Java, &e., and which very probably occurs 

 both in the Malay Peninsula and in Southern Tenasserim, 

 but which has not yet been recorded from either of these locar- 



