jEGIALITIS mongolica*. 



(THE MONGOLIAN SAND-PLOVER.) 



Charadrius mongolus, Pallas, Reise, iii. p. 700 (1776). 



Charadrius mongolicus, Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-As. ii. p. 136 (1811); Middendorff, Sibir. Reise, 



ii. p. 211, pi. 19. figs. 2, 3 (1853) ; Schrenck, Reis. im Amur-L. p. 411 (1860) ; Schlegel, 



Mus. P.-B. Cursores, p. 41 (1865); Von Heuglin, Orn. N.Ost-Afr. ii. p. 1023 (1873). 

 Charadrius cantianus, Lath, cqmd Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 187 (1821). 

 Charadrius rujinellus, Blyth, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. xii. p. 169 (1843). 

 Hiaticula inomata, Gould, B. of Austr. vi. pi. 19 (1848). 



1 Hiaticula leschenaulti, Less, aptid Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 109. 

 JEgialitis pyrrhothorax, Temm. apud Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 639 (1864). 

 JEgialitis mongolicus, Pallas, Harting, Ibis, 1870, p. 384; Legge, Ibis, 1874, pp. 27, 28, 29; 



Salvadori, Uccelli di Borneo, p. 310 (1874); Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, pp. 293, 463; 



Armstrong, t. c. p. 339 ; David & Oust. Ois. de la Chine, p. 427 (1877). 

 JEgialitis mongola (Pallas), Walden, Ibis, 1873, p. 317; Plume, Str. Feath. 1878 (B. of 



Tenass.), p. 455, et 1879, viii. p. 112 (List Ind. B.); Ball, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 227. 

 Cirrepidesmus mongolicus (Pallas), Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 230, et 1874, p. 287, et 1875, 



p. 12 ; id. Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 571 (1875). 

 JEgialitis mongolica (Pall.), Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. 1875, ix. p. 227 ; Legge, Ibis, 



1875, p. 401. 

 Pallass Shore-Plover and The Lesser Sand-Plover, Jerdon et auctorum ; Tschitsche hirugu, 



Amoor Land (Middendorff). Kotan, Ceylonese Tamils ; Watuwa, Ceylonese. 



Adult male and female (Ceylon). Length 7 - l to 7 - 5 inches (average about 7-3) ; wing 4 - 75 to 5-0 ; tail 1-9 to 2-0 ; 



tarsus 1-2 to 1-3 : middle toe and claw 0-85 to 0-9 ; bill to gape 07 to 0-8, at front 0-68 to 072. 

 Iris deep brown ; bill black, slightly pale at the base beneath ; tibia and feet plumbeous, with the tarsi slate-grey, the 



edges of the scales being darker, or in some greenish plumbeous entirely. 



Winter plumage (Ceylon). This species ahoost entirely resembles the last ; but, as it is much more common, I will 

 give a description of it in detail for the benefit of local students and collectors : — 



Above greyish brown, paling on the hind neck, and with the margins of the feathers paler than the rest ; forehead 

 white, passing above the lores and over the eyes, behind which the supercilium widens and is joined by a white 

 streak from beneath the eye ; wing-coverts edged with whitish ; edge of the 'wing and tips of greater coverts 

 white ; tips of the secondaries, as also the outer edges, and a portion of the web near the shaft of the innermost, 

 white ; tertials more or less finely edged with white ; primaries and shafts as in the last ; feathers of the rump 

 and upper tail-coverts not quite so broadly edged as in the last ; tail the same, but slightly less graduated ; lores 

 brown, darkest at the eyelid ; cheeks and ear-coverts brownish ; beneath white, the brown of the sides of the 

 neck encroaching on the chest in some more than in others ; under wiug and axillaries as in the last, pure white. 

 The amount of white varies on the forehead, consequent on age. 



Adult male, breeding-plumage (Swatow, 24th May). Throat, upper part of fore neck, and a broad frontal band, 

 together with the under surface, white; a jet-black band from the bill to the eye, and expanding beneath it to the 

 ear-coverts, and another narrow connecting one across the forehead ; a broad rufous band, of a darker hue than in 



* I adopt the spelling as altered by the author of the species himself in 1811, as it is more correct than his original 

 name mongola. 



