LOBIPLUVIA MALABAEICA. 



(THE YELLOW- WATTLED LAPWING.) 



Charadrius malabaricus, Bodd. Tabl. PI. Enl. p. 53 (1783). _ 



Charadrius bilobus, Gm. ed. Syst. Nat. p. 691 (1788). 



Vanellus bilobus (Gm.), Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 208 ; Jerdon, Madr. Journ. 1840, xii. p. 213. 



Sarciophorus bilobus (Gm.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 261 (1849) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. 



iii. p. G49 (1804) ; Blyth, Ibis, 18G7, p. 105 ; Beavan, Ibis, 1868, p. 390 ; Layard, Ann. 



& Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 108 ; Morgan, Ibis, 1875, p. 323 ; Legge, t. c. p. 407. 

 Sarciophorus malabaricus (Bodd.), Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 472. 

 Lobipluvia malabarica (Bodd.), Hume, Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 577 (1875); Butler & Hume, 



Str. Feath. 1876, p. 14; Davidson & Wenden, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 88 ; Ball, t. c. p. 227; 



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

 Jithiri, N.YV. Pro v. ; Al-Kati, Tamil (Jerdon) ; Zirdi, Hind. ; VerMiJcher, Dutch in Ceylon ; 



Teteue, Portuguese in Ceylon (Layard). 

 Kirella, Sinhalese. 



Adult male axil female. Length 10-5 to 11-25 inches; wing 7-7 to 7 P 8; tail 3-0 ; tarsus 2-3 to 2-4 ; middle toe and 

 daw 1-0 fco 1-1 : bill to gape 1-25, at front 1-0. 



Iris yellowish or grey, with a brown outer edge ; eyelid and wattles lemon-yellow ; bill black, greenish yellow at the 

 base ; tibia and tarsus yellow ; feet dingy yellow, claws black. 



Top of the head and nape black, bounded by a white border running round the nape from the posterior corner of the 

 eye ; hind neck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts pale earth-brown, passing into a lighter or greyer hue over the 

 fore neck, throat, and chest : chin, gorge, and edge of brown pectoral region blackish ; upper tail-coverts, tail, 

 under surface, under wing- and under tail-coverts, the tips of the secondary coverts and base of secondaries, with 

 the outer webs of some of the underlying tertials, white ; quills and a subterminal band on all but the two outer 

 reetrices black, preceded on the central pair by a smoky wash. In examples not fully adult the black caudal band 

 extends to the penultimate. 



Young. Birds of the year have the head dark brown, edged fulvous ; the white nuchal border as in the adult; neck, 

 back, and wing-coverts olive-brown, palest on the fore neck, each feather edged with fulvous ; quills as in the 

 adult; forehead and chin whitish, the caudal band extending to the penultimate, and the outer web of the lateral 

 rectrix smoky grey. In the second year the chin is blackish, and the head becomes black, specimens being 

 commonly procured with the head-feathers mingled brown and black. 



Obs. Ceylonese birds appear to average smaller than those from the mainland. I find that in a large series examined 

 in Mr. Harting's collection, and in the Indian and British Museums, the wing varies from 7'G to 8-0 inches, and 

 the tarsus from 2-3 to 2-6, the smallest specimens being from Southern India, and the largest from the Calcutta 

 district and Darjiling. 



The Spur-winged Plover (Hoplopterus ventralis, Cuv.), which inhabits India as far south as the Godaveri, though not 

 likely to occur in Ceylon, is worthy of notice. It is a larger bird than the present, with very sharp long black 

 spurs at the shoulder at all seasons ; the head is furnished with a long crest, and both are black, as well as a 

 broad band down the throat and a large patch on the abdomen ; the lesser wing-coverts at the point of the wing 

 are also black, forming a band adjacent to the white greater coverts and secondaries ; wings and terminal half of 

 tail black ; chest ashy grey, beneath with the basal part of the tail and under wing white. Wing of a specimen 

 before me 7"0 ; tarsus 2-7; bill at front 1*15. 



Distribution. — This handsome Plover is partial to the dry districts of Ceylon. It is, I imagine, more 

 numerous in the north-west, from Jaffna down to Aripu, than anywhere else in the island ; and Mr. Holdsworth 



