CHARADRIIDA. 537 
THE CASPIAN PLOVER. 
AEGIALITIS ASIATICA (Pallas). 
On the morning of May 22nd 1890, two strange birds were 
observed in a large market-garden bordering on the North Denes at 
Great Yarmouth, and later in the day one of them was shot. It 
proved to be an adult male of the Caspian Plover, and, having been 
exhibited by Mr. Southwell at a meeting of the Zoological Society 
(Pr. Z.S. 1890, p. 461), it was placed in the Norwich Museum. 
In an important paper on Limicole, published in ‘The Ibis’ for 
1870, Mr. Harting had described and figured this species ; pointing 
out (p. 207) the possibility that it might visit England, inasmuch as 
its occurrences at Heligoland in November 1850 and May 1859 
had brought its westward wanderings within a measurable distance of 
our shores. In November 1887 a straggler was obtained in Italy, on 
the banks of the classical Metaurus, and is now in the Museum at 
Florence. That as long ago as April 1836 an example should have 
been taken at Odessa, as well as a pair at Astrakhan in 1871, is not 
surprising, for the home of this Sand-Plover begins at the Khirgis 
steppes. According to Prof. Menzbier (Poynting’s ‘Eggs of 
Limicole,’ p. 23), the breeding-area extends from the mouth of the 
Volga over the lower courses of the rivers Ural and Emba, and 
