jEGIALITIS cantiana. 



(THE KENTISH PLOVER.) 



Charadriiis cantiamis, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. 66 (1801); Gould, B. of Eur. iv. pi. 29S 



(1837); Jerdon, Madr. Journ. 1840, xii. p. 203; Layard, B. of S. Afr. p. 296 (1867); 



Von Heuglin, Orn. N.Ost-Afr. ii. p. 1055 (1873). 

 Mgialites cantiamis (Lath.), Bp. Comp. List, p. 45 (1858) ; Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 404 ; 



Holdsw. ibid. 1872, p. 471; Legge, ibid. 1875, p. 374; Butler, Str. Feath. 1877, 



p. 290. 

 Hiaticula cantiana (Lath.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 263 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & 



Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 109. 

 JEgialitis cantiamis (Lath.), Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 640 (1864) ; Shelley, B. of Egypt, 



p. 240 (1872) ; Legge, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 372 ; Armstrong, ibid. 1876, p. 340 ; Hume, 



t.c. p. 464. 

 JEgialitis cantiana (Lath.), Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 401 ; Irby, B. of Gibraltar, p. 162 (1875); 



Dresser, B. of Eur. pt. 49 (1876) ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1879, viii. p. 112 (List Ind. B.). 

 JEgialophilns cantiamis (Lath.), Llume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 230 ; id. Nests and Eggs, iii. 



p. 571 (1875); Scully, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 185. 

 Kentish Dotterel of some ; See-Regenpfeifer, German ; Charran, Spanish. ChulloJc, Sai 



Yamghurcki, Turki (Scully) ; Shiro-chidori, Japanese ; Kotan, Ceylonese Tamils. 

 Watuwa, Sinhalese. 



Adult male (Ceylon). Length 6-1 to 6 - 3 inches; wing 4-1 to 4'2 ; tail 1/5 to 1'7 ; tarsus 1*0 to l'l ; middle toe and 



claw 0-65 to 0-7 ; bill to gape 0-6 to 0-68. 

 Iris dark brown ; bill black ; tibia and feet dusky plumbeous ; the tarsus paler or bluish, in some greenish. 



Breeding-plumage (Kanthelai, August). Head, back, and wing-coverts ashy brown, darkening into blackish brown on 

 the upper tail-coverts and four central rectrices, and edged pale throughout ; forehead, a broad superciliary band, 

 cheeks, throat, and entire under surface white, passing in a narrow collar round the hind neck ; a broad frontal 

 band, lores, ear-coverts, and a patch on each side of the chest black, the ear-coverts paler than the rest ; a pale 

 rufous border above the black frontal band and round the upper edge of the supercilium and collar ; quills blackish 

 brown, paler on the inner webs, and with the shafts white, the first being purer than the rest, the outer webs of 

 the innermost primaries with a white edge; the secondaries tipped white, and with the base of the inner webs 

 the same ; the three outer pairs of rectrices white, with a brownish wash on the inner web of the third. 



Adidt female in summer (shot with young, Hambantota, July). Wants the black frontal band, black stripe beneath 

 the eye, and patch at the sides of the neck ; lores, forehead, and supercilium white, as in the male, a brown stripe 

 instead of a black one through the lores ; feathers anterior to the eye, bordering the white fringe, blackish ; a 

 narrow whitish band across the hind neck edged obscurely with buff ; the patch on the sides of the chest brown, 

 like the back. This individual has the feathers of the head tipped with white, which appears to be caused by 

 abrasion and bleaching from the effects of a burning sun on the arid salt-pans on which I shot it. 



Another example, shot from the nest at Trincomalie, is identical in all respects save the white tippings of the head- 

 feathers, the crown being plain brown, like the back, the feathers only finely edged pale. Specimens shot at this 

 time are all hi the abraded plumage, which is moulted in August. 



In a series of females the length varies from 5'9 to 6 - 2 inches, and the wing from 3 - 7 to 4-1. 



Male in winter. Differs from the male in summer in wanting the rufous colouring on the head, and in the black band 

 on the head being almost obsolete ; the lores and the stripe behind the eye are brownish, and so are the patches 

 at the sides of the chest ; the white collar is of the same width as in summer, aud edged above with rufous. 



6 F 



