Ringed Plover of the British Isles. 401 



that it cousLsts of more or less well-developed and usually 

 darkly-coloured pectoral bands ; a white band across the 

 forehead ; a dark frontal band immediately posterior to this ; 

 a dark loral streak ; a dark ])ost-auricalar patch ; a white 

 nuchal collar or some slight variation of this ; and some 

 uniform shade of pale brown, rufous brown^ buff, or cinna- 

 mon defining in a very definitely circumscribed manner the 

 top of the head. In every species, then, this type of colour- 

 pattern is obvious. Taking the genus as a whole and 

 ignoring the fact that it might be, and has been, split up 

 into two or more subsidiary groups, according to the form 

 and colour ofc" the bill, the length, stoutness, and colour of 

 the legs and feet, and the colour-pattern of the tail, we find 

 that this distinctive coloration of the head and breast runs 

 right through every member of the group with remarkably 

 little variation in a very constant manner. 



This colour-pattern is, indeed, far more fixed and constant 

 than the form, size, or shape of the bill; for in the bills of 

 the various species we get an extraordinary variety of forms 

 from the short, stout, and stumpy little bill of ^Jgialitis 

 melodus, to the long, thin, and attenuated bill of ^-E.placldus. 

 Thus, in a long series of species of world-wide distribution 

 we have a colour-pattern which is fixed, constant, and 

 obvioui^ly more ancient than the structural peculiarities of 

 the bill, or for that matter, of other parts. This colour- 

 pattern is, therefore, obviously very characteristic of the 

 genus uiEgialitis (as usually understood), and if a character 

 which is very characteristic of a genus is not a generic 

 character, the object of this note will be well achieved if it 

 elicits information as to what it otherwise may be. 



But there is another colour-character which is quite as, 

 if not more, important than this colour-pattern which runs 

 through the many species of the genus ^gialitis in the adult 

 condition. I refer to the colour-pattern which is so very 

 characteristic of the downy young of every species, even 

 though, as I have already stated, those species may be as 

 widely separated in point of distribution as it is possible for 

 species to l)e. 



This colour-].>atteru of the downy young is characterised 



