jEGIALITIS jerdoni. 



(THE LITTLE INDIAN RINGED PLOVER. 



? Charadrius philippensis (Lath.), Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 166 ; Jerdon, Madr. Journ. 1840, 



xii. p. 212. 

 JEgialitis minutus (Pallas), apud Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 041 (1864) ; Legge, Str. Feath. 



1875, p. 372 (first record from Ceylon) ; Hume, ibid. 1877, p. 212, et 1878, p. 456 



(B. of Tenass.). 

 Mgialitis philippinus (Lath.), Hume, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 179. 

 JEgialitis minuta (Pallas), apud Hume, Str. Feath. 1878, vii. p. 227; Cripps, t. c. p. 300 ; 



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

 JEgialitis jerdoni, Legge, P. Z. S. 1880, p. 39. 



Adult male, and female (Ceylon). Length 6-25 to 6-4 inches ; wing 3"9 to 4-25 ; tail 2-0 to 2'2 ; tarsus 095 to 1-0 ; 

 middle toe and claw 0-66 to 0-72 ; bill to gape 055, at front 045 to - 50. 



In a series of 3 males and 2 females the latter are the smaller. 



Iris deep brown ; eyelid, which is thick, protuberant, and " corrugated," primrose-yellow ; bill black, basal half of lower 

 mandible and a spot at the base of the culmen yellow : legs and feet plumbeous, the centre of the tarsus yellowish 

 (in dried specimens the legs turn to a yellowish colour throughout). 



Adult male (Kanthelai : August). Back of head, back, wings, scapulars, and tertials light hair-brown; the basal 

 colour of the tail-feathers is a paler brown than in the last species, showing the dark terminal portion as a band ; 

 the loral band is narrower than in the last, and the black does not cross the point of the forehead, which is 

 entirely white to the base of the bill ; the black postfrontal band is very broad, and the pectoral baud rather 

 narrow, but the black at the back of the neck is rather broader in proportion than in JS. curoniea. 



Nor having procured any specimens of this Plover in the cool season, I am unable to say what the winter plumage is; 

 but it cannot, as a matter of course, differ from that of the last. 



Immature. An example shot on the 4th of August at Kanthelai, and in very abraded plumage, has the feathers of 

 the head and back narrowly tipped, and the scapulars and tertials somewhat deeply margined, with brownish 

 rufous. Two others, shot at the same date, have this colour only at the tips of the tertials. This would appear 

 to be the plumage at the end of the first year, just before the second moult. 



Obs. There can be no question as to whether this species is distinct from the last, although it comes so close to it 

 that it may only be entitled to the rank of a subspecies or small race. Its smaller size (the largest specimens 

 only equalling the smallest of curoniea), the absence, or the very small amount, of black, extending from the lores 

 across the base of the bill, the more conspicuous yellow coloration of the bill, and (in the breeding-season at any 

 rate) the remarkably protuberant and corrugated fleshy orbital circle, quite different from the plain naked eyelid 

 of curoniea, will always serve to distinguish it from the latter bird. Jerdon recognized some of these distinctions, 

 and included with them the less lengthened tertials, which is not a reliable characteristic ; he likewise stated that 

 the quills were blacker, and the upper plurnage of a somewhat darker shade ; but neither of these features am I 

 able to discover. I may likewise remark (as some authors have been unwilling to allow the distinctness of this 

 species) that Blyth recognized it, and in a paper in the ' Field,' May 1870, remarked that the little Ringed Plover 

 of South India was peculiar for the much broader naked yellow orbital ring. Jerdon applied to this species Pallas's 

 title minutus ; and this has been in vogue in India ever since. This was a name given by Pallas, in his ' Zoographia 

 Rosso-Asiatiea,' to a small Plover which was obtained on lakes in the steppes of Barabinski, a region lying between 

 the rivers Ob and Irtish. The description is that of a young bird, as the forehead is said to be whitish, no 

 mention being made of any dark coloration, and the feathers of the upper surface are described as pale-margined. 

 The length of the wing is given as 3-6 inches only, too small for adults of the present diminutive species even ; 

 and I agree with Mr. Harting in considering this Charadrius minutus to be nothing more thaii the young of 



