126 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CHAEADEIIDiE. Genus ^gialitis. 



Subfamily Charadriinm. 



LITTLE RINGED PLOVER. 



iEGIALITIS MINOE— (TFoZ/ and Meyer). 

 Plate XIX. 

 Charadrius dubius, Scop. Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. ii. p. 93 (1786). 



Charadrius minor (Wolf and Meyer), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 128 (1850); Seebohm, 

 Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 16 (1885) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 120, pi. 40 (1896). 



yEgialitis curonicus (GmeL), Dresser, B. Bur. vii. p. 491, pi. 524 (1876) ; Yarrell, 

 Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 262 (1883); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxx. (1895). 



.^gialitis minor (Wolf and Meyer), Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 229 



(1894). 



/Eglalitis dubia (Scop.), Sharps, Handb. B. Gr. Brit. iii. p. 162 (1896); Sharpe, Cat. 

 B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 263 (1896). 



Geographical distribution.— £H^is^; The Little Einged Plover is an 

 accidental wanderer to England ; not known to have visited Scotland or Ireland. 

 It has been obtained in Sussex (two examples), Middlesex (two examples), Hants 

 (one example) , and Scilly Isles (one example) . Foreign : Palsearctic region from 

 Atlantic to Pacific. It breeds throughout Europe and Palsearctic Asia south of 

 lat. 60°. It is a resident throughout the basin of the Mediterranean, as far 

 south as the Great Desert, but a migrant north of that basin and throughout its 

 breeding area in Asia, wintering south of the Sahara in Africa in the Intertropical 

 realm, and in Asia in most parts of the Oriental region ; Asia south of the 

 Himalayas, and the Malay Archipelago as far east as Borneo. In the Australian 

 region it has occurred in Celebes and New Guinea, and it is also an abnormal 

 migrant to North America. North of lat. 60°, up to the Arctic circle, it is an 

 accidental visitor only. 



Allied forms. — MgialiUs minor jerdoni, an inhabitant of Ceylon, India, 

 Burma, and Cochin China. Differs from the Little Einged Plover in having the 

 basal half of the lower mandible yellow and the orbits corrugated. It is also a 

 smaller bird. M. placidus, an inhabitant of Mantchooria, Corea, Japan, the valley 



