950 ^GIALITIS CANTIANA. 



Habits. — This interesting little Plover frequents bare land, sandy wastes, dried-up marshes, stony, pebbly 

 reaches along the shores of lakes, lagoons, and salt-pans, and, in fact, any inviting spot which is not very damp 

 in the vicinity of water. It is the exception to find it on muddy foreshores, tidal flats, or ooze ; and in the 

 north of Ceylon, where these localities are crowded with Sandpipers, Stints, and the two preceding species, the 

 present bird was observed generally running along the dry edge of the foreshore which had been untouched 

 by the tide, or picking up insects on the burnt-up grass-land still further away from the water. It is fond 

 of wide stretches of sand, such as the vast flats at the head of the Jaffna lake, on which I have seen solitary 

 pairs tripping along almost miles from any other bird. It is at times, as Messrs. Brooke and Shelley observe 

 in their respective writings, difficult to see when standing motionless on parched-up wastes, as the colour of 

 its plumage exactly resembles the soil on which it is reposing. It is very active, running with a very quick 

 movement of its little feet whenever it moves, and when approached runs for 40 or 50 yards without stopping. 

 If startled then, it rises, uttering its double note chit-ek, which is not generally repeated until a little interval 

 lias elapsed ; it is sometimes uttered while the bird is running. I have found it much wilder in some 

 localities than in others ; but on the whole it is a tame bird. It is rarely met with in greater numbers than 

 half a dozen, and such a little troop do not associate in very close company, but generally spread over a 

 considerable extent of ground, each member searching for its food quite independently of its neighbours. It 

 is oftener seen singly or in pairs than in little flocks. Its flight, like that of other Sand-Plovers, is regular, 

 and performed with quick though somewhat measured strokes ; and before alighting it stretches out its legs 

 and skims along with extended wings. It feeds much on sand-flies, sand-worms, and captures small flies and 

 insects when searching on grass-land for food; 1 have also found very minute shells in its stomach. 



Nidification. — This bird breeds in the south-eastern and northern parts of Ceylon. I procured both eggs 

 and nestlings in down at Hambantota at the end of June and first week in July. It nests on the dry fore- 

 shores of the salt lagoons or leways in this district. Near Trincomalie I have found its eggs in a dried-up field 

 near the bordersof a salt lake, and at Kanthelai tank on shingly banks and stripsof pebbly sand close to the water's 

 edge, both at the beginning and end of July. The nest is generally placed in a depression in the ground, often in 

 the footprints of cattle; but it seems sometimes to be partially formed by the bird. The lining consists of 

 tiny pebbles or pieces of shell ; but if the nest is made in coarse sand or fine shingle there is scarcely any foreign 

 matter introduced into it, and the eggs repose in the natural hollow only. The points are sometimes buried 

 in the hollow of the nest, the eggs thus assuming quite a vertical position. The parent bird generally leaves 

 her eggs quietly, while the searcher is still at a distance from her position, and runs some distance from 

 the nest before flying ; but I have known one sit until I approached to within thirty or forty yards 

 of her. The eggs are pointed at the small end, but not pyriform ; they vary in size considerably, two speci- 

 mens from the same locality (Kanthelai), as exemplifying the extremes, measuring 1*23 by - 91 inch and Tl 

 by 08k The ground-colour is either yellowish stone-colour or olivaceous stone, between which shades there 

 are several tints noticeable. The markings are linear in character, and though they vary in extent and form 

 there is the same tendency to run into hieroglyphic-like streaks and pencillings in all. Some are entirely 

 marked with these blackish zigzag and highly erratic streaks throughout the surface, while others have this 

 colouring intermingled with spots and small blotches of the same ; and all eggs have primary or underlying- 

 spots and markings of bluish grey. Some specimens are olive-grey, covered nearly uniformly with small 

 irregular blots of dai'k sepia over indistinct spots of bluish grey, with here and there streaks, strokes, and 

 pencillings of a deeper hue ; in others of the same ground-colour the markings are most numerous at the 

 obtuse end, and the egg covered with longer streaks and scratches. Three is the maximum number of eggs, 

 and in many nests I only fxmnd two. A pair of abnormally coloured eggs in my collection, taken at Kan- 

 thelai, are of a dull olive-stone, with here and there a few distantly-situated clouds of inky black, with 

 smaller spots of the same over numerous lighter inky-grey spots ; they measure 1T7 by 0'85 inch and P16 by 

 - 86. A series of European eggs examined by me do not differ generally from those I have from Cevlon; 

 the smallest specimen in a large series measures PI by 0'85 inch. 



I append the following extract on the habits of the parent birds while breeding, from my notes in the 

 P. Z. S. 1875, p. 375 : — "The various devices resorted to by the old birds to attract attention and draw away 



