554 SOCIABLE PLOVER. 
known, but with which I happened to be familiar, having recently 
received from the Crimea the specimen figured in the background 
of the present illustration. The bird has not actually been killed 
in Poland, but near Lublin in September 1842 Taczanowski 
identified two adults—which he was unable to shoot—in company 
with some Golden Plovers. The Sociable Plover inhabits the 
steppes of the Crimea and of the district between the Don, the Volga 
and the Caucasus, as well as the Aralo-Caspian area and Turkestan ; 
while on June 11th 1897 Mr. Popham shot an example in lat. 61° N. 
on the VYenesei, a great extension of the range of this species. In 
September it crosses the Pamirs to the dry uplands of Sind and the 
sandy plains of India, and wanders southward to Ceylon in the cold 
season, when it also visits Arabia, Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia. 
Eggs obtained through the Moravian colony at Sarepta, and taken 
on the Sarpa, are rather paler than those of the Lapwing and less 
thickly spotted: measurements 1°8 by 1°3:in. Prof. Menzbier says 
that the male takes part in incubation. The food consists of 
spiders, grasshoppers, beetles and their larve. Von Heuglin, who 
had opportunities of observing this bird in Kordofan and Sennaar, 
says that it frequented sandy localities and ground that had been 
burnt ; it was, as a rule, quite silent, but every now and then he 
heard it utter a short, shrill whistle. 
The adult has the crown of the head glossy-black, enclosed by a 
broad white band which starts from the base of the bill and runs 
backwards above each eye to the nape; lores and a narrow streak 
behind each eye black; nape and mantle pale drab, rather browner 
on the wing-coverts ; secondaries conspicuously white, quills chiefly 
black ; tail-feathers white, with a subterminal band of dark brown 
on all except the outer pair; chin white; cheeks and sides of the 
throat pale buff; breast ash-brown, turning to black on the belly, 
followed by rich chestnut-red on the flanks and vent ; axillaries and 
under tail-coverts white; bill, legs and feet black. Length 12 in. ; 
wing 8 in. The sexes scarcely differ in plumage. The young bird 
has the crown dark brown, with a buffish-white circlet; cheeks and 
nape dull buff, striped with brown; breast rather distinctly marked 
with ‘ arrow-heads’ of ash-grey ; belly dull white, with a little chest- 
nut above the vent; the ¢wo outer pairs of tail-feathers white ; 
axillaries and under wing-coverts white, as in the adult. 
This species is often placed in the genus Chaw/usta, chiefly because 
it has not a crest ; but it has a hind-toe, and for the purpose of the 
present work I have thought best to unite it with Vanel/us. 
