94(5 .EGIALITIS MONGOLICA. 



passing them. They run about and feed apart, covering about a quarter of an acre perhaps, and when disturbed 

 all get up together and fly leisurely further on. Iu September they commence to appear at Colombo, and 

 are common in November and December, and may then be shot quite stained, like the Pipits, with the cabook- 

 dust of the Galle face. The majority of those which arrive first are young birds ■ and more females are 

 obtained thau the other sex. When they first come to the island they are tamer than they are in the middle 

 of the season, or in the spring before migrating, when they become somewhat shy and restless. The short 

 bill of this species, as well as its smaller size, always serve to distinguish it, at a distance even, from its con- 

 gener JE. geoffroyi. Its note is a sharp plaintive whistle ; and I have heard a trilling sound uttered by two 

 birds associating together. Its food consists of sand-flies, small worms, minute crustaceans, and insects, the 

 latter of which it entirely feeds on in grassy places, which, I think, are frequented more by it than by any other 

 Sand- Plover in Ceylon. Both this and the last species are, comparatively speaking, inactive birds, for they 

 do not run hither and thither, taking stretches of 10 or 15 yards, with an almost invisible movement of the 

 legs, as one sees in the case of the Kentish and Ringed Plovers ; but, on the contrary, they move rather slowly 

 and take short runs. When winged, however, and chased they run with great speed ; and Middcndorff 

 say.^ that they swim and dive well when wounded. 



Nidification. — As mentioned above, Dr. Adams found this species breeding in Ladakh, the mountainous 

 portion of Thibet bounding Cashmir on the east. Here he found the young at the Chimouraree Lake, 

 but he was too late to obtain eggs. Mr. Hume says that it breeds in May and June about this and 

 other Thibetan lakes. 



