638 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



The eggs are four, of the usual yellowish stone color, with dark 

 brown spots and blotches. 



Gray, in his Catalogue of the Birds of the Pacific, gives C. 

 fulvus, Grael., (xanthocheilus, Wagler and Gould) as the species 

 found in New Guinea and most of the Pacific islands ; whilst 

 longipes is said to extend to the Ladrone islands. The American 

 species is C. virginicus ; and there thus appear to be four 

 races or species, C. pluvialis of Europe, Africa, and Western 

 Asia ; C. longipes, from Central and Eastern Asia including 

 India ; fulvus, from New Guinea, Australia, and the Pacific 

 Islands; and virginicus in America. Some other races are recorded, 

 but probably all will range under one or other of these 

 four. 



Gen. tEgialitis, Boie. 



Syn. Hiaticula, Gray. 



Char. — Bill much as in Charadrius, but more slender ; wings 

 long. Of small size, often with a black collar round the neck, 

 hence they are often called the Ringed-plovers. 



There are two types of form in this genus even as here restrict- 

 ed, the one of somewhat stout form with shorter tail, which, 

 at the spring moult, assumes more or less rufous colour on the 

 neck and throat ; and the other generally of smaller size and 

 more slender make, with a black collar, and black frontal band, 

 which does not become rufous at the breeding season. 



1st. Of stouter make, Cirrepidesmus, Bonap. 



846. iEgialitis Geoffroyi, Wagler. 



Charadrius, apud Wagler — Blyth, Cat. 1562 — H. rufinus, 

 Blyth — C. Leschenaultii, Lesson ? — C. asiaticus, Horsf ? 



The Large Sand-plover. 



Descr. — Winter plumage greyish brown on the upper-parts, 

 ear-coverts, and beneath the eye, and sides of the breast ; the 

 rest of the under parts, with the feathers immediately above the 

 bill, and a streak over the eye, white ; primaries darker, and 

 the secondaries partly white on their outer web. 



