960 CHETTUSIA GREG ARIA. 



scapular region blackish brown : the whole tipped with rufous-buff ; scapulars and wing-coverts tipped with the 

 same hue, but brown as regards the rest of the feather ; centres of the chest-feathers black, the edges buffi. The 

 marginal coloration of the upper surface is very different in this example from the adult above described. 



Obs. Chittusia villotcei, Audouin, the nearest ally of this bird, has the forehead and throat white, paling into light 

 stone-grev on the head ; the back and coverts light brown, with a pinkish tinge ; the greater coverts and secondaries 

 white, with a baud of black above; primaries, rump, tail, and underparts white: chest brown and asky. Wing 

 6*7 inches ; tarsus '2-2. Bill black, legs and feet yellow (S. Persia). 



Distribution. — This line Plover has been only twice procured in Ceylon; on the first occasion by 

 Mr. Bligh, on the Galle face at Colombo, during the cool season about ten years ago, and on the second by 

 Mr. Mac Vicar in the same spot on the 17th October, 1873. These are the only instances of its ranging so 

 far south as this island with which I am acquainted ; but it may perhaps have been shot by collectors in the 

 north and have escaped notice. 



In India its distribution is local, and it is confined to the western side of the peninsula. The most 

 southerly point at which it has been noticed is the Deccan district, in some of the western parts of which it 

 t^, according to Messrs. Davidson and Wender, common during the cold weather. I have specimens sent 

 me by the late Mr. A. Anderson from the North-west Provinces, and I fancy that westward of that part it 

 is not uncommon. In the Sambhur district, observes Mr. Adam, it is not very common, being met with 

 sparingly about the plains in the cold weather. In Sindh Mr. Hume often observed it, sometimes about the 

 jheels, but more commonly on waste dry uplands near cultivation ; and he remarks that it is common in the 

 cold season all through Jodhpore, Guzerat, Kutch, and Kattiawar. In the neighbourhood of Deesa, writes 

 Captain Butler, it is abundant during the cold weather, congregating in docks, which vary in number from 

 four or five to fifty or sixty ; but it is not so plentiful further south. The date of its arrival he chronicles as 

 the 3rd of October and of its departure as the 10th of March. In Oudh and Kumaon Col. Irby found it 

 very abundant in sandy plains. On leaving India it passes through Turkestan, according to Severtzoff, being 

 met with in the south-eastern and northern portions of the country up to au altitude of 4000 feet. Dr. Scullv 

 did not see it in the Kashghar district of Turkestan; but it ranges to the north of that region, as I have 

 sei n a specimen (above described) from the South Altai Mountains, in about lat. 47° N., and most probablv it 

 breeds extensively between that part of Central Asia and the sea of Aral. It was procured by Pallas in these 

 latitudes ; but it does not range as far north as Siberia. It has not been observed in Persia, nor in Palestine 

 or Asia Minor, but it must needs pass through the former country on its way north to Europe ; at anv rate 

 it passes into Arabia, for Mr. Wyatt met with it on the plain of Er Rahah in the peninsula of Sinai. It is 

 rare in Egypt, where Captain Shelley only twice met with it. Von Heuglin writes that it visits North-east 

 Africa regularly in autumn and winter, arriving in Egypt at the beginning of October, and making its way 

 thence southwards to the savannas of Kordofan, Sennaar, and Takah, in flocks of five to fifteen individuals. 

 It appears to migrate into Europe by way of the eastern shores of the Caspian to the Ural and the Volga, and 

 westwards by way of Persia along the south of the Caucasus and across the Black Sea to the Crimea, where 

 Von Nordmann saw large flocks of it. It does not, therefore, range in its journeys so far west as Turkey, 

 and it has not been seen in Greece. In the Ural Mountains, where it no doubt breeds, it ranges on the 

 eastern slope as far north as 59|° N. ; and on the Volga it has been met with as far as lat. 53°, in which 

 latitude Bogandoff met with it on the Mcdvediza, a tributary of the Don. It has strayed as far west as 

 Poland, for there is a specimen in the Warsaw Museum killed near Lublin. It has not occurred elsewhere 

 in Central Europe ; but according to Mr. Saunders, loc. cit., it has visited Spain, as he asserts that he met 

 with a half-putrid example in the market of Cadiz in February 1808. 



Habits. — The Sociable Plover, as its name implies, lives in flocks of from half a dozen to a hundred or 

 more, and affects plains, waste land, open commons, barren country near cultivation, and sometimes the 

 vicinity of jheels. It is interesting that both specimens which have been procured in Ceylon should have 

 been found on the Galle face, which is a very public locality, but, nevertheless, a very favourite resort of 

 various Plovers. Mr. Hume remarks that it is fearless and tame until shot at once or twice ; but Von Heuglin 



