J1GIALITIS CUKONICA. 



(THE LESSER RINGED PLOVER.) 



ICharadrius dubius, Scop. Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. p. 93 (1786, ex Sonnerat). 



Charadrius, sp. nov., Beseke, Schr. Berl. naturf. Gesell. vii. p. 463 (1787). 



Charadrhts curonicus, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 692 (1788). 



Charadrins philippensis, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 245 (1790). 



Charadrius minutus, Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-As. ii. p. 145 (1811), juv. 



Charadrius pusi litis, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 187 (1821). 



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



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

 sEgialitis philippina, Scop, apud Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 640 (1864). 

 Mgialites dubius (Scop.), Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 471 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 28 ; David 



& Oustalet, Ois. de la Chine, p. 429 (1877). 

 Mgialitxs fluviatilis (Bechst.), apud Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 230; id. Nests and Eggs, 



iii. p. 572 (1875). 

 MgialiUs dubia (Scop.), Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. 1875, ix. p. 227 ; id. P. Z. S. 1877, p. 701 ; 



Hume, Str. Feath. 1879 (List B. of Ind.), p. 112. 

 JEgialitis curonica (Gm.), Butler & Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 12 ; Dresser, B. of Eur. 



pt, 51, 52 (1876); Hume, Str. Feath. 1878 (B. of Tenass.), p. 456. 

 1 Petit Pluvier a collier de I'isle de Lugon, Sonnerat ; Le petit Pluvier a collier, Lesser 



Ringed Dotterel of some authors ; Lavadeira, Portuguese ; Meine Pluvier, Dutch. 



Burong Pool, Sumatra (Raffles); Shaiarafc Chullok, Turki (Scully); Zirrea, Hind. ; 



Bytu ulanJca, Telugu (Jerdon) ; Kotan, Ceylonese Tamils. 

 Ola watuwa, Sinhalese. 



Adult mah' ami female (Ceylon). Length 6"8 to 7'2 inches ; wing 4-3 to 4-7; tail 2-4 to 2'6; tarsus 1*0 ; middle toe 

 and claw 0-75 to 0-8; bill to gape 0"6, at front Oo3. Females are larger than males. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black, yellow in some at the base of the under mandible : eyelid yellowish ; legs and feet dusky 

 yellow ; joints and tips of toes greenish brown. 



Male, winter plumage (Trincomalie, 21st November). Head, nape, upper back, scapulars, tertials, and wing-coverts hair- 

 brown, paling on the front of the crown into a broad buff-white band on the forehead ; a blackish band passing 

 from the bill through the lores and under the eye to the ear-coverts ; a white orbital fringe except at the extreme 

 corner, where it is black ; chin, throat, and a collar round the hind neck white ; across the chest a blackish band, 

 tinged with buff in the centre, expanding on the sides of the chest, and passing as a narrow edging round beneath 

 the white collar ; lower back and rump paler brown than the upper back ; primaries black-brown, the innermost 

 narrowly tipped with white ; secondaries pale brown, tipped with white, and the innermost with the terminal 

 portion of the outer webs white ; 1st primary-shaft white, all the rest dark brown ; two central tail-feathers 

 brown, darkening into blackish brown at the tip ; next three dark brown, with a quarter inch of the tips white ; 

 remainder white, with a black bar on the inner web ; under surface and under wing white. 



The black band in some does not extend round as a border to the white ring ; these are apparently immature birds. 



Summer plumage (China). Wing 4-53 inches ; tail 2-4 ; tarsus 0-91 ; middle toe and claw 0-81 ; bill at front 0-57. 



Brown of the back, wings, and tail slightly darker than in winter; a broad black band (§ inch wide) passing from the 

 bill above and beneath the eye and covering the ear-coverts ; a broad antecoronal band of black (0*3 inch) joins 

 the black above the eye, in front of which there is a pure white frontal band separated from the base of the bill 



