Genus JEGIALOPHILUS or SAND PLOVERS. 



Type ^GIALOPHILUS CANTIANUS. 



^gialophilus of Gould (1865). — The birds comprising the 

 present genus are characterised by the absence of a hind toe, by 

 their white axillaries and belly, white bases to the outer web of the 

 innermost primaries, and the absence of a dark (nearly black) 

 subterminal band across the rectrices. The wings are long and 

 pointed, first primary the longest ; the tail is somewhat rounded, 

 and consists of twelve feathers. The other characters do not 

 differ from those given for the Ringed Plovers. 



This genus is composed of about twenty-one species and 

 subspecies. Almost cosmopolitan, except in Arctic latitudes. 

 Least abundant in the Palsearctic and Oriental regions. Two 

 species are British, one of which breeds locally in, and the other 

 is a rare straggler to, our islands. 



The Sand Plovers are dwellers on sandy plains, the banks of 

 rivers, salt lakes, and inland seas, and the coasts of oceans. They are 

 birds of rapid and sustained flight, and run and walk with ease. 

 Their notes are shrill and monotonous. They subsist on insects, 

 crustaceans, sand-worms, etc. Their nests are slight, mere 

 depressions in the ground, and the eggs, pyriform in shape, and 

 three or four in number, are spotted. They are monogamous ; 

 and gregarious, especially during the non-breeding season. 



