>.", SQUATAEOLA HELVETICA. 



washed with brown on the terminal half; shafts of all the quills white, except at the tip ; upper tail-coverts and 

 three outer tail-feathers white, with black bars ; remainder with alternate brownish-black and greyish-white bars ; 

 forehead, above the eye, chin, face, throat, and under surface white, the feathers on the face, fore neck, chest, and 

 flanks with brown centres, narrow on the fore neck and face, and widened on the chest ; on the upper flanks the 

 markings take the form of bars, and in front and beneath the eye they are confluent ; axillary plume and least 

 under wing-coverts coal-black ; lateral under tail-coverts barred with black on their outer webs. 



Adult male and female (Europe ; England). Length lOo to 11-0 inches : wing 7'4 to 7'6 ; tail 2-0 ; tarsus 1/7 to 1-8 ; 

 middle toe and claw 1-35 : bill to gape 1/3. 



Male in breeding-plumage (May, Sussex). Lores, face, ear-coverts, chin, throat, chest, breast, and flanks coal-black, 

 not passing round the eye, but extending just above the anterior corner (in some specimens the eyelid above is 

 fringed with black); forehead and a broad band passing over the eye and down the border of the black neck to 

 the sides of the chest, abdomen, vent, thighs, and under tail-coverts white, passing on the crown, nape, and hind 

 neck into greyish : the feathers in these parts centred with black ; back, rump, and wing-coverts chiefly dull black, 

 the feathers tipped and laterally spotted with whitish grey, the latter markings on the wing-coverts extending 

 r wards the shafts and making these parts whiter than the back ; primaries brownish black, the greater portion 

 of the inner webs white, and the shafts with a patch of white near the tip ; the shorter feathers with a white 

 patch on the outer webs near the tip ; secondaries white at the base, darkening into ashy brown on the 

 inner and into blackish brown on the outer webs towards the tip ; the elongated tertials ashy brown, indented 

 with black and white at the margins of the outer webs ; upper tail-coverts white, with marginal bars of black ; 

 tail white, barred with black (the centre feathers broadly) and also obscured with black near the tip, the extremities 

 being white ; the lateral under tail-coverts with marginal spots of black, and the white sides of the chest patched 

 scantily with black ; axillary plume black ; under wing white. In some specimens the white almost predominates 

 over the black on the upper surface. A male from Barcelona (May) exhibits this character, the white tippings 

 and marginal patches being very broad, especially on the back. 



Female in breeding-plumage. The black of the throat and under surface of a brownish hue; this is said to be normally 

 thf case : a specimen which I have examined, in Mr. Dresser's collection, in May; exhibits this character : the dark 

 markings of the upper surface are also brownish black. The black is acquired by a change of the feather, which 

 can be plainly seen in spring examples ; the alteration in colour commences at the tip and extends up the feather. 

 In specimens I have examined I detect but few, if any, new black feathers, as in the next species. 



Young, nestling in down (Petchora river, Mus. Seebohm). Top and sides of head, back, wings and rump, and outer 

 side of thighs dull golden yellow, coarsely mottled with dull black ; nape, hind neck, a patch on each side of the 

 rump, and under surface dull white ; down the centre of the forehead there is a straight stripe, as in the young of 

 Ch. pluvialis, and there is a streak above and below the gape, as in Ch.fulvus. The chick is intermediate in 

 marking between these two last named ; and the conspicuous white hind neck, as well as the large bill and legs, 

 '; sides the presence of a hind toe, would serve to identify it readily ; the lower cheek-stripe encircles a white patch 

 below the eye in all three species. 



Immature (British Museum ; Bocky Mountains). Head, nape, interscapulars, tertials, and wing-coverts blackish brown, 

 palest on the wing-coverts ; the feathers of the head margined with dull golden yellow, and those of the remaining 

 parts in question with large marginal spots of the same ; back much the same, but the spots less pure ; tail barred 

 black and white, the white changing near the tip into golden yellow ; upper tail-coverts white, tipped with yellowish. 



Forehead, face, and throat dull white, streaked with black, which pales and blends with the whitish on the fore neck ; 

 sides of the chest marked with blackish brown and faint yellowish ; beneath from the chest dull whitish. 



Obs. In this plumage the Grey Plover is not unlike the Asiatic Golden Plover; but the yellow spottings are paler, and, 

 to the inexperienced, the larger bill, conspicuous black axillaries (seen even in flight), and, above all, the hind toe 

 will always serve as distinctive marks. 



Distribution. — The Grey Plover has not been noticed in Ceylon until recently. I met with it at 

 Illepekadua on the 10th March, 1876. and recorded its occurrence in 'Stray Feathers/ loc. cit. Two days 

 afterwards I saw a small flock at Manaar. Mr. Murray, of the Ceylon Civil Service, subsequently informed 

 me that he had often met with it at Jaffna, and that in some seasons it was tolerably common on the beach 



