GLAEEOLA LACTEA. 



(THE SMALL SWALLOW-PLOVER.) 



Glareola lactea, Temm. PI. Col. pi. 399 (1838) ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 259 (1849) ; 



Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. G32 (1864); Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 440; Legge, t. c. 



p. 490; Ball, ibid. 1S74, p. 429; Hume, ibid. 1875, p. 179; Legge, t. c. p. 204; 



id. Ibis, 1875, p. 400 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 568 ; Armstrong, Str. Feath. 1876, 



p. 338; Oates, ibid. 1877, p. 104; Hume & Davison, ibid. (B. of Tenass.), 1878, p. 454 ; 



Davidson & Wenden, ibid. viii. p. 88; Ball, t. c. p. 226 ; Cripps, t.c. p. 299 ; Hume, 



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

 Glareola orientalis (Leach), apud Jerdon, Cat. B. South India, Madr. Journ. xii. p. 215. 



Glareola 1 Legge, Mem. Hamb. B. Ceylon, Blue-Book, 1873, p. 11. 



Glareole lade, Temminck ; Lesser Pratincole of some. 



Adult mule and female. Length fro to 0-8 inches ; wing 5-7 to 6-05 ; tail 2-0, falling short of closed wings from 0-6 

 to 0-8 ; tarsus 0-7 to 0-8 ; middle toe and claw 0"75 to 0-8 ; bill to gape 0-75 to 0-8 ; expanse 18-0. TJie tail is 

 not forked in this spi cies. 



Iris dark brown : eyelid brown; bill black, gape and basal part of margins red ; legs and feet neutral brown or plum- 

 beous brown. 



Male. Above, including the wing-coverts, uniform pale sandy brown, darker on the forehead, and passing from the 

 sides of the neck in a paler wash over the chest ; a white orbital fringe ; quills, axillary plume, and under wing- 

 coverts, with the terminal portion of the tail black, the latter decreasing in extent to the outer feather ; at the 

 middle of the 5th and 6th primaries a marginal spot ; inner webs of primaries at the base, the secondaries, except 

 at the tip and terminal outer edge, margins of the greater coverts, and some of the adjacent tertials white; chin 

 albescent, blending into rufescent fulvous on the throat ; upper tail-coverts, tail, lower parts, and breast white, 

 blending into the pale brownish of the chest ; tips of all but the two outer rectrices whitish. 



/■'« i, ml, . Differs (so far as I have observed) in wanting the white marginal spots on the 5th and 6th primaries, and 

 in the less amount of black on the lores. 



Young. Birds of the year have the upper surface fulvous brown, darker on the head, and with the tips of the feathers 

 ochreous, with a dark crescentic ray ; this is present even on the primaries; least wing-coverts more rufescent 

 than tli'' rest: tail blackish brown, changing to ochreous at the tips; chin and throat whitish, spotted with 

 blackish brown ; chest duskier than in the adult. Birds not quite mature have pale edges to the feathers of the 

 upper surface, and the throat is faintly tinged with buff ; the lores a little darker than the forehead. The gape is 

 not so red as in the adult. Wing 5-4 inches. 



Obs. The dimensions of Pegu specimens are given by Mr. Oates as follows: — length Clinches; expanse 17 - 2 to 

 17'"> : wing 5-7 to 5-8 ; tail from \eiit i'-l ; tarsus 0"75 to 0-81. Mr. Armstrong records the measurements of a 

 male shot near Elephant Point, Burmah, as — length G-5 : expanse 16-2 ; wing 5"5 ; tail from vent 2-15 ; tarsus 

 0*9. Ceylonese specimens therefore average larger than these eastern birds. Individuals in the national 

 collection now before me, however, measure in the wing 5 - 7, 6"1, 6 - 3 inches respectively ; they are from 

 Diuapore and Xorthern India (localities not stated), and correspond almost entirely with Ceylonese specimens, 

 though the throats are scarcely so brightly coloured, notwithstanding that the fulvous hue of the chest descends 

 in a measure over the lower breast, which part is consequently not so white as in my insular specimens. 



Distribution. — The Lesser Swallow-Plover was discovered by myself in June 1873 at Hambantota; I then 

 for the first time procured specimens ; but I had noticed it in March of the previous year on a salt lagoon 

 near Kirinde. Large flocks frequented the hollows in the great sand hill west of the town, as well as the 

 dried-up shores of the leways in the daytime, and assembled at twilight and at early morn to hawk over 

 some swampy ground near the curious wells. They appear to be resident all the year round in this district ; 



