114 



CHAEADEIUS. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Nearest ally. 



The Dotterel has grey axillaries. In breeding-plumage it is easily distinguished by- 

 its black belly and chestnut lower breast and flanks ; and at all seasons its short bill is 

 remarkable; its bill from the frontal 

 feathers is shorter than the middle toe 

 ivithout the claw. 



The Dotterel, like the Ringed 

 Plover, is a Western Palsearctic bird, 

 which has probably only recently ex- 

 tended its breeding-range into Asia. It 

 breeds on the tundras above the limits 

 of forest-growth from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific, and winters in Africa north 

 of the equator. It passes through West 

 Siberia, Turkestan, and Central Europe 

 on migration, a few remaining to breed 

 on the Alps, the mountains of Great 

 Britain, and Scandinavia, and a few re- 

 maining to winter on the northern shores 



of the Mediterranean. The Dotterel has never been known to occur in the Oriental 

 Region or in South-east Siberia, and its alleged occurrence in Japan (Cassin, Proc. Ac. 

 Nat. Sc. Philad. 1858, p. 195) is probably based on a case of mistaken identity. 



It has no very near relation, but is probably less distantly allied to C. veredus than to 

 any other species. 



The Common Dotterel has been generically separated from the Common Ringed 

 Plover on the ground that the former " has a very peculiar and characteristic sternum," 

 which is said to " differ greatly " from that of the latter (Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii. 

 p. 481). It is a gross abuse of anatomical characters to separate the subgenus Eudromias 

 from the subgenus yEgialitis on the ground that they differ in the shape of the sternum. 

 The alleged differences, if they exist at all, of which I can find no evidence after a careful 

 examination of several examples of each, are supposed to be in the shape of the posterior 

 extremity of the sternum. This is a character which varies greatly with age, and appears 

 to be of very little generic value in the Charadriidse. As Messrs. A. & E. Newton very 

 cautiously remark (Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. 1869, p. 337), "the characters afforded by the 

 posterior extremity of the sternum are certainly not so constant in birds generally as those 

 to be deduced from the anterior end." 



