Birds of Celebes: Charadriidae. 75 j 



Eggs. 4; pyriform; pale buff, speckled and streaked with surface spots of dark and light 

 bro^ra, with underlying markings of inky grey; size 29—30.5 X 21.6—22.9 mm (from 

 Seebohm d 4). 



Nest. None; the bird "scratclung a little hollow in the sand or shingle, which it treads into 

 a very neat, round, shallow basin" (Seebohm d 4). 



Distribution. Europe; Africa down to the Gaboon and Mozambique; Asia; ? N. America 

 (Alaska and coast of Cahfornia); Pliilippines and Great Sunda Islands (see Dresser II, 

 Legge 5, Taczanowski f 3, Sharpe g 17 j; India (Jerdon, etc. 5); Ceylon 

 (Legge 5); Burmah (Gates g 6); Tenasserim (Hume & Davison 4; Malay Penin- 

 sula (Hume g 4, Kelhamgf .5); China (David g 2, etc.); Corea (Campb. d 8); Japan 

 (Blakiston, Pryer d G); Formosa (Swinhoe c 2); Philiiopiiies — Luzon, Leyte, 

 Bohol, Negros, Guimaras, Catanduanes, Mindanao, Palawan (Everett g 4''", Steere 

 g 13, Bourns & Worces. g 14, Whitehead g 7, g 16, etc.); Borneo (S. Muller 

 Mottley, etc. g 9); Java (Kuhl & v. Hasselt c 2, Boie c 2); Sumba (Doherty .9 18); 

 Celebes — Gorontalo Dist. (v. Rosenb. c 2], Minahassa (P. & F. Sarasin), Macassar 

 (Weber dlO). 



In the eastern parts of Asia the Little Ringed Plover, according to 

 Taczanowski, has not yet been found in Kamtschatka, and the limits of its 

 northern range in E. Siberia are not yet known. Prjevalsky observed it breed- 

 ing in Mongolia, and Taczanowski describes eggs from Dauria, and Nikolski 

 affirms that it breeds in Sakhalien Island. In these territories it is only a 

 summer visitor. Godlewski remarks that it arrives in Dauria at the beginnins 

 of May and leaves at the end of September; in Mongolia Prjevalsky (3) ob- 

 served its first appearance on 9*'' April. Throughout China it is, according to 

 David, extremely abundant, even in winter. As to its residence in winter, 

 this remark probably has more strict reference to South China, for Styan('</7j 

 describes it as common in the Lower Yangtse basin during migration in March, 

 April and May, and again in September and October. In Southern China Mr. 

 De La Touche (d9i observed it passing Foochow from the beginning of March to 

 the beginning of May; it winters in Swatow. The southern migration seems to 

 pass on across the China Sea, but in diminished numbers; in North Borneo 

 Whitehead (g 11) speaks of it as "a winter visitor, generally seen singly or 

 in pairs on the sea-coast"; in Palawan he first observed it on 30"" July. From 

 Celebes we are able to point only to 6 specimens : one in the Leyden Museum 

 killed by Rosenberg at Lake Limbotto, G**" August, 1863; three obtained by 

 the Drs. Sarasin late in the year in the Minahassa, as shown above; two in 

 Prof. Weber's collection from Macassar. 



The Little Ringed Plover has very close affinities with A.jerdoni, a species 

 which seems to have often been confused with it in India, and about which 

 there is still much obscurity. In India A. jerdom has been reported as a per- 

 manent resident (Hume N. & Eggs Ind. B. 1890, HI, 340), but A. curonica is re- 

 corded as a breeding species there as well (perhaps through mistaken identity?). 

 T>egge Relieved that he discovered the eggs of A.jerdoni in Ceylon, but only 

 knew A. curonica as a winter visitor there. Salvadori records A. Jeidoui 



