CHETTUSIA GEEGAEIA. 



(THE SOCIABLE LAPWING.) 



Charadrius gregarius, Pallas, Reise, i. p. 456 (1771). 



Chettusia gregaria (Pall.), Bp. Iconog. Faun. Ital. Ucc. In trod. p. 115 (1832) ; Jerdon, B. of 

 Ind. iii. p. 646 (1864) ; Saunders, Ibis, 1871, p. 386; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 471 

 (first record from Ceylon) ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1S73, p. 231 ; Shelley, B. of Egypt, 

 p. 233 ; Von Heuglin, Orn. N.Ost-Afr. ii. p. 996 (1873) ; Dresser, B. of Eur. pt. 37 

 (1875); Butler & Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 11 ; Davidson & Wender, ibid. 1878, vii. 

 p. 88 ; Hume, ibid. 1879, viii. (List Ind. Birds), p. 112. 



Charadrius wagleri, J. E. Gray & Hardw. 111. Ind. Zool. pi. 50 (1835). 



Charadrius ventralis, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xii. p. 214. 



Vanellus gregarius (Pall.), Gould, B. of Eur. iv. pi. 292 (1837). 



Sociable Plover of some authors ; Black-sided Plover. 



Adult male, summer plumage (Russia). Wing S - 3 inches ; tail 3 - 7 ; tarsus 2 - 5 ; middle toe l'l ; bill to gape l - 3. 



Iris brown ; bill black ; legs and feet black. 



Head, nape, and a band from the gape through eye black ; forehead and a broad band over the eye to the nape, as also 

 the chin and gorge, white, changing into the rufescent sand-colour of the sides of the neck and ear-coverts ; neck 

 below the rufescent colour, chest, interscapulars, and wing-coverts brownish stone-grey, slightly glossed and 

 blending into the rufous of the neck ; lesser wing-coverts darker than the rest ; secondaries and terminal portion 

 of the greater wing-coverts white ; primaries and their coverts black ; winglet blackish brown ; the edge of the 

 wing pale brown ; rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail white, with a large black patch near the tips of the four 

 central pairs of feathers ; breast black, changing into rufous on the abdomen ; vent, under tail-coverts, axillaries, 

 and under wing pure white. 



Female (South Altai Mountains). Head not so black, the loral stripe scanty ; more white on forehead, face, and 

 throat ; the chest much paler, and darkening into blackish on the breast, the feathers beneath this pale rufous. 

 Wing 7 - 8 inches. This, I believe, is the usual plumage of the female ; but Mr. Dresser speaks of an example in 

 Mr. Harting's collection as being as highly coloured as any male. The breeding-plumage is assumed throughout 

 India in the month of February. 



Winter plumage (N.W. Provinces, November 1873). Forehead, lores, and superciliary stripe buffy white ; head dark 

 brown ; a black stripe behind the eye ; face and ear-coverts sandy brown ; upper plumage with the feathers finely 

 edged with pale grey; wings, rump, and tail as in summer; chest greyish brown, the feathers pale-edged; chin 

 and throat white, as are also the lower breast and abdomen. This example has some black feathers on the crown, 

 and is acquiring new tail-feathers, which looks as if the head turned black in early winter. The black and rufous 

 underparts cannot well be characteristic of the adult winter plumage, as birds are never seen with them in India 

 until the month of February, when this dress is first assumed. The tail-band extends in some to the penul- 

 timate feather. 



Nestling. " Head and upper parts white, on the forehead, crown, and back washed with ochre ; crown and upper 

 parts spotted and blotched with blackish; the entire underparts white." (Dresser, descr. of pi. 10, Eev. et Mag. 

 Zool. 1870.) 



Immature (17th October, Colombo). Length 12-0 inches ; wing 8-0 ; tail 3-4 ; bare tibia 1-2 ; tarsus 2-3 ; middle toe 

 and claw 1-2 ; bill at front 1 - 18. 



Forehead and broad supercilium buff-white ; occiput and nape dark brown, intermingled with black feathers, which 

 cover the crown, and are tipped with white next the forehead ; lores, face, and ear-coverts dusky buff, the feathers 

 with dark shafts ; a black edging in front of the eye, and a narrow streak behind it ; hind neck brown ; inter- 



