942 jEGIALITIS geoffroyi. 



next to be considered (the Lesser Sand-Plover) ; and 1 have, on one or two occasions, found it alone, both in 

 small flocks and in scattered company consisting of two or three individuals. Under the first-named condition 

 it was frequenting the secluded hollows on the summit of the great sand hill at Ilambantota, and seemed to 

 be resting when I met with it (about 10 a.m.) after the business of feeding in the morning. It is shier than 

 its smaller relative, and all I procured were killed with long shots, as I always found it difficult to approach. 

 On one occasion it was observed and procured on an inland situation, namely on some flooded meadows a few 

 miles from the sea on the south bank of the Virgel ; a few were seen here frequenting little grassy eminences 

 which were surrounded by the water covering the land for a wide extent. In India it has been usually found 

 on the sea-coast; and on the shores of Burmah Dr. Armstrong found it in company with immense flocks of 

 " smaller Sand-Plovers," the species referred to being no doubt JE. mongolica. On passage to more northerly 

 latitudes, particularly in the north-west of India, it occurs, in common with other purely littoral species, far 

 inland. 



As regards its food, 1 have found the contents of its stomach to consist of small insects and larvse, mixed 

 with gravel ; and Layard detected in it minute crustaceans and worms. Von Heuglin found it frequenting 

 sand banks, coral reefs, and low-lying shores, sometimes iu flocks and sometimes alone, whilst on other 

 occasions it was associated with other shore-birds. 



Nidification. — But little is known up to the present time concerning the breeding-habits of this Plover. 

 It is probable that one great cradle of the species is in Western Asia and on the Red-Sea coasts. More 

 specimens have been obtained in this region in summer plumage than anywhere else, except, perhaps, the 

 China coasts, including Formosa. In the latter island Swinhoe found it breeding, and a series of its eggs, 

 which I have had the advantage of examining, were procured by him. They are pointed ovals, rather stumpy 

 at the small end, and with a large diameter for their length. They are clay-buff, with streaky blots throughout 

 of inky black, mixed with some large blotches and numerous " peucillings " or irregular streaks of the same, 

 under which there are blotches of purplish grey and bluish grey. They vary from \27 to l'37inchin length, 

 and from 10 to 105 in breadth. 



Together with these eggs, some others were collected by Swinhoe in the same locality, and identified bv 

 him as those of the Asiatic Golden Plover, which bird he says is common all the year round, breeding in great 

 abundance on the south-west marshy plains. As I have above remarked in the preceding article, this is 

 probably an error ; and 1 think that the eggs all belong to the present species. The whole were probably 

 brought to him by native collectors, and the smaller types, which 1 have just described, identified by him as 

 those of JE. geoffroyi, while the larger were taken for Charadrius fulvus. They are altogether too small, and 

 look like dark heavily-blotched specimens of the eggs of the former species. There are 9 eggs altogether — - 

 rich stone-buff, very handsomely blotched throughout with sepia-black clouds and blots, mixed up with 

 straggly markings of the same over spots of light brown aud bluish grey. They are of the same shape as the 

 eggs marked Mgialitis geoffroyi, measure F38 to F4G inch by 0-96 to TOO, and are clearly not Golden 

 Plover's eggs. 



