936 CHARADEIUS FULVUS. 



frequenting the open cultivated district on eacli side of the Gindura river. In the south-east of the island it 

 is met with numerously about the leways, near estuaries and salt lagoons; and on the east coast and to the 

 north of Trincomalie finds a home in similar localities. I noticed it in abundance in March in the Jaffna 

 peninsula, and met with it in great numbers all down the north-west coast, from Jaffna to the Puttalam 

 district. It frequented the flats on the sea-coast, and consorted much with the Turnstone in some localities, 

 such as the Erinativoe Islands and the Manaar sands, being particularly abundant in those places. It 

 ascends the hills from the Eastern province, having been met with on the Uva patnas near Banderawella, at 

 an elevation of 4000 feet ; and it is not improbable that it occurs as a straggler about the Nuwara-Eliya lake. 

 It leaves the island early in May, and on the 28th of April I have shot it at Wackwella in almost perfect 

 breeding-plumage. 



In India it is found principally in the north-east, appearing to be rare both inland, on the Deccan, and in 

 the north-western districts. It has been recorded by Mr. Blanford from Bombay ; but the Rev. Dr. Fairbank 

 did not meet with it in the Khandala district. In Kattiawar it is abundant ; but in Sindh, Guzerat, and 

 Jodhpur it is rare. In the former province Mr. Day met with it at Larkhana, and in the second-named 

 Captain Butler met with it singly or in small parties, and did not observe it until October, so that it must 

 extend across the country from Bengal, and not migrate direct from the north ; and this is proved by the fact 

 that Mr. Blanford did not notice it in Persia (though it has been seen on the Mekran coast), nor Severtzoff 

 in Turkestan. Dr. Stoliczka observed it during the first half of the winter at Yarkand ; but Dr. Scully did 

 not see it at all. Its habitat, therefore, beyond the north-west of India is very limited. In Raipur it is said to 

 be very abundant in stony plains, leaving them about the 1st of May ; and Mr. Ball likewise records it from 

 Orissa on the north and south of the Mahanadi river, and also from the Godaveri valley. Writing of it in 

 regard to the Calcutta district, Mr. Hume says that in the beginning and end of the cold season they are 

 brought into the market in " enormous numbers, and that on the 26th April they were all in breeding- 

 plumage ; about the lGth May they all disappear." Mr. Cripps, who says that it is very common in Furreed- 

 pore, has noticed it as early as the 10th August and as late as the 10th of May. In the Irrawaddy delta it 

 was found by Dr. Armstrong to be common along the shore, but more abundant inland in ploughed fields. 

 In Tenasserim it is common, and is found on the open and cultivated-plain portions of the entire province; 

 it leaves, says Mr. Davison, in May. Regarding the Andamans, Mr. Hume procured it at Preparis and Cocos, 

 and saw it at many of the other islands. Mr. Davison found it abundant in South Andaman and on 

 Camorta in the Nicobars : he remarks that it arrives in November and remains until June ; but stragglers 

 are procured in the hot season in non-breeding plumage, these being evidently barren birds. On the opposite 

 side of the peninsula it was met with at nearly all the islands of the Laccadive group. 



It wanders south by way of the Malay peniusula and the coast of China (from which latter region aud 

 from the islands of Hainan and Formosa Swiuhoe records it) to the Malay islands, and thence onwards to 

 Australia ; while to the east it spreads beyond the Philippines, where it has been obtained in Luzon, Negros, 

 Mindanao, aud Zebu (in the latter in full breeding-plumage in April), to the Pelew and other islands of the 

 Pacific, among which may be mentioned Eua and Ninafou in the Friendly group, and Ponape, one of the 

 Seniavins, whence it has been recently received by Dr. Finsch. Layard has procured it in New Caledonia, 

 and writes (' Ibis/ 1879, p. 107) that his son found it breeding on some islands off Ansevata, which im- 

 portant information demonstrates that it is, in some degree, resident in the southern hemisphere. It has been 

 found in more tropical latitudes in summer than the above mentioned, as Dr. Meyer procured it in the Togian 

 Islands in 1871 ; and in Formosa Swinhoe states that it breeds in great numbers. The eggs, however, which 

 he obtained in that island as belonging to the Golden Plover appear to be those of the Large Sand-Plover. It 

 occurs in Sumatra (where Mr. Everett obtained it in the Lampong district), in Java, Borneo, Labuan, Celebes, 

 Bourn, Amboyna, Ceram, Batchian, Halmahera, Morotai, and Timor. In Borneo it is, according to 

 Mr. Mottley, very common ; and it is recorded from numerous localities. It was procured by Forster in 

 Celebes ; and Herr Miiller obtained it in New Guinea, from the south coast of which island Mr. Ramsay of 

 Sydney likewise records it. He likewise notes it as having occurred at Cape York, Port Darwin, the Gidf of 

 Carpentaria, Rockingham Bay ; whilst, as regards Australia generally, Mr. Gould observes, " Although 

 nowhere very abundant, this bird is generally dispersed over all the colonies from Tasmania to the extreme 

 north of the continent of Australia I obtained several specimens on the banks of the Derwent in 



