460 Mr. C. A. Wright's Second Appendix to a 



not find it at all. It was, lie adds, perhaps, the rarest species 

 which he and his party met with in Egypt, though on an exten- 

 sive tract of marshy country, a few miles south-west of Thebes, 

 it was abundant and several were shot. In confirmation of 

 this, I am informed that a gentleman, who returned to Egypt 

 this winter, met with a good many near Thebes during his visit 

 last year. 



There is an indifferent figure of the bird in the magnificent 

 French work ' Description de I'Egypte,^ published by order of 

 the first Napoleon ; but this figure is accompanied by a very 

 accurate description, under the name of ' Vanneau de Villoteau' 

 ■ — Vanellus villotait The female only, however, is described, the 

 plumage of the male being, it states, altogether unknown. 

 Unfortunately I cannot throw any light on this point, as my 

 specimen also proved to be a female ; but probably the sexes do 

 not differ greatly, if we may hazard a conjecture from analogy. 

 Savigny remarks that the food and mode of propagation are 

 also unknown, " Up to the present time," he continues, '' this 

 new species has been discovered nowhere but in Egypt." 



Subsequent researches, however, have proved its occurrence 

 in Asia (see ' List of Birds in the Museum of the Asiatic Society, 

 Calcutta,' by Edward Blyth) ; and a single example has been 

 captured in Europe, which was killed from a flock of its con- 

 gener, the common Lapwing, at Montpellier, as related in the 

 'Richesses Ornithologiques du Midi de la France' of MM. 

 Jaubert and Barthelemy-Lapommeraie (p. 452). This speci- 

 men, hitherto unique as European, is in the collection of M. 

 Doumet, at Cette. 



The habitats named by Mr. Blyth are Middle Asia and North 

 Africa, but he says it is very rare in India. A specimen was 

 obtained from the Calcutta Bazaar, and described in the * Jour- 

 nal of the Asiatic Society' (vol. xiii. p. 387). 



Dr. Leith Adams informs me that he obtained specimens 

 from the Salt Mountains of the Punjaub ; and I have much 

 satisfaction in inserting here some unpublished notes on this 

 bird made by that indefatigable observer, in April, 1853 : — 



" ' Brown Plover,' Salt Uange, Punjaub. It is seen generally 

 by the sides of pools and lakes, in small flocks. Length, from 



