176 ASIATIC DOTTEREL. 



is therefore quite possible that on some future occasion this bird may 

 occur in England." 



I find in an excellent paper by Mr. J. Cordeaux on the Birds 

 obtained by Mr. Gatke in Heligoland, (Ibis, 1875, April, p. 185,) 

 that a second specimen was captured in that island on May 19th., 

 1859 — an old male in summer plumage. Canon Tristram shot a 

 specimen near Acre in winter, "where C. pyrrothorax was pretty 

 common." (Ibis, 1868, p. 323.) 



Mr. Blanford, who accompanied the expedition to Abyssinia, brought 

 home two young birds, which Mr. Harting says belong to this species, 

 and in his " Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia," the former naturalist 

 remarks, p. 429, "Apparently less abundant than CEdicne?nus affinis on 

 the coast. I shot some specimens inland at Hairo in Habab in August. 

 They were in flocks on open grassy ground." 



The late Mr. J. C. Andersson remarks (Birds of Damaraland, edited 

 by Mr. J. H. Gurney, p. 271,) "Small flocks of this Plover may at 

 times be seen in Damaraland, but it is never common and very shy. 

 All my Damara specimens were procured at Objimbinque, in the moist 

 bed of the river Swakoss." 



"The iris is very dark brown, the ring round the eyes black, the 

 legs yellow, and the toes dusky." 



^^ Individual specimens differ a good deal in size; but there is no 

 marked distinction in the dimensions of the sexes. The largest adult 

 specimen I obtained measured eight inches in length, the smallest 

 seven." 



Mr. Layard, in his "Birds of South Africa," says that he obtained 

 specimens near Colesberg, where they are found in flocks of fifteen 

 or twenty very far away from water. They were scarce, and only 

 seen after showers of rain, which bring out small coleoptera, etc., on 

 which they seem to feed and get very fat. 



Mr. Harting further remarks, "M. Verreaux found this species on 

 the Orange River, and a specimen from Algoa Bay in the British 

 Museum. Other examples procured in South Africa by Von Horstock 

 are in the British Museum." 



" It is not included by Riippell in his ' Systematische Uebersicht der 

 -Vogel Nord. Ost. Africas.'" 



Von Heuglin, in his "Vogel Nord. Ost. Africas," has the following 

 about this bird, under the head of Charadrius damarensis : — "Young 

 birds, and in winter plumage, are above a duller and more sooty 

 grey, also the whole crop and upper parts of the breast, the feathers 

 of which are somewhat lighter at the edge, and foremost parts of the 

 crown of the head, (not however of the white forehead,) are clearly 



