742* Birds of Celebes: Charadriidae. 



from V. Schierbrand (Java) in the Dresden Museum, answering pretty well to Mr. 

 Harting's descrijjtion above, might be adult birds; they do not, however, display 

 anything of the dusky patches on the sides of the breast wliich Mi-. Harting supposes 

 the adult to possess in winter. One sjjecimen from Talaut has broad cinnamon edgings 

 to the feathers of the upper surface (young?), a second is nearly uniform (adult?). 



Chick, eggs, nest. Undescribed. The species has, however, been obseiTed breeding in Mongolia 

 by David (11) and Prjevalsky (d 7). 



Distribution. South-west Siberia — Samarkand (fide Seebohm a 5); Mongolia (David //, 

 Prjevalsky d 7); China (Swinhoe d3, Styan a 6, etc.); Cambodia (Conrad a 5); 

 Andamans (Ball d 4)\ Java (Horsfield 5, v. Schierbrand); Philippines — Palawan 

 (Platen 7, S); Talaut Islands — Karkellang (Nat. ColL in Dresd. Mus.); Celebes 

 — Gorontalo Distr. (Riedel 6'), Macassar (Wallace all, d I, d 2, el); Ternate, 

 Amboina, New Guinea, Kei, Aru (Salvad. 5); N. and E.Australia (Ramsay d 8). 



This rare Plover has been met with, no doubt as a winter visitor or bird 

 of passage, only by Wallace and Riedel in Celebes. A specimen from Riedel 

 in the Brunswick Museum, one (? from Wallace) in the same collection recorded 

 by W. Blasius (0), four in the British Museum and one in the Dresden Museum 

 are the only examples from the island of which we can find notice. Two in 

 winter plumage were obtained in Talaut in the autumn, 1896, by our native hunters. 

 In Mongolia David found it plentiful: "It establishes its breeding-quarters on 

 high plateaus, among stony plains, on the shores of the bitter lakes and of the 

 rare water-courses with which the country is supplied. It runs on the ground 

 with extreme lightness and astonishing rapidity, and feeds on small insects, 

 principally Coleoptera of the genera Asida, Gonocephalus and Tenti/ria, which 

 abound in summer in the sandy regions". Prjevalsky met with it on the salt 

 plains of S. E. Mongolia, sometimes at great distances from the water. It was 

 very shy, even when it had young. 



Abbe David further observes that it passes through China as a bird of 

 passage, residing there only accidentally; Mr. Styan (a 6) on the Lower Yangtse 

 and Mr. De La Touche (11) in the South China (Foochow) likewise remarked 

 that it passes on in migration. In all probability the birds found in the East 

 Indies and Australia are members of this southern wandering from Mongolia 

 and other suitable breeding areas in the neighbouring territories. 



A. vereda most closely resembles A. asiatica (Pall.), from which it may, 

 however, readily be distinguished by its greater size (wing 20 — 25 mm longer), 

 its drab-brown axillaries (white in asiatica), the dusky shafts of the remiges, 

 except the first two (all being white in asiatica), — characters pointed out 

 among other marks of distinction by Mr. Harting (d I). Compared with the 

 other Plovers of the genus Aegialitis in Celebes it may at once be distin- 

 guished from A. geoffroyi and mongola by its grey-brown under-wing, by its pale 

 brownish flesh-coloured legs, as against slaty-grey or blackish in those species, 

 by its middle toe without the claw being less than half the length of the tarsus, 

 and by its much more slender bill. A. peroni, ciironica and jerdoni do not come 

 into question, on account of their small size and black markings about the head. 



