170 SPUB-WINGED PLOVER. 



will be found in a paper by Mr. Harting, "On the Eggs of Little- 

 known LiinicolcB ,^^ published in the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society, 1874, p. 456. 



The Spur-winged Plover has the top of the head, throat, neck, 

 abdomen, primary wing feathers, and end of tail black; sides of the 

 head, nape, rump, under wing and tail coverts, shoulders, and lower 

 part of abdomen pure white; back and wing coverts light brown; 

 beak and feet black; iris deep red. The plumage is alike in both 

 sexes. 



Dr. Leith Adams (Ibis, 1864, p. 29,) identifies this species, and not 

 the next (Pluvianus mgyjMus), with the Trochilus of Herodotus; and 

 Mr. Staiford Allen, who had similar opportunities of studying the 

 species in Egypt (c. f. tom. cit., p. 240), agrees with him. 



Mr. E. C. Taylor, however, (Ibis, 1859, p. 52,) maintains that 

 Pluvianus CBgyptius is the species referred to (vide infra) , and Mr. 

 Harting thinks there is little doubt that he is right; since "the friend 

 of the crocodile" is more likely to have been the smaller species 

 which frequents the shoals and sand-flats, than the larger bird which 

 is more frequently found in the cultivated parts of the country. 



My figure of the bird is taken from a specimen killed in Egypt, 

 in March, 1858, kindly sent me by Canon Tristram. The o,^^ has 

 been already referred to. 



The species has been figured by Brisson, vol. v., pi. 7, fig. 2; 

 Savigny, Egypte, pi. 6, fig. 3; Gould, B. of E., pi. 293; Swainson, 

 B, W. Afr. ii, pi. 26, and others. 



