CHARADEIUS. 



145 



Its similarity to the Oriental Dotterel (C. veredus) is very remarkable. The adult 

 males of both species agree in most details of their plumage. They both have white lores, 

 a white throat, a chestnut breast shading into black where it joins the white belly, a 

 slender bill, pale legs, and small feet, and neither of them ever have any black on the 

 forehead ; but the Dotterel differs from the Plover in having grey axillaries, and no white 

 bases to the outer webs of the innermost primaries, two characters which are unaffected by 

 age, sex, or season. 



The Caspian Sand-Plover breeds in the basins of the Caspian and Aral Seas, and 

 winters throughout South Africa. It appears to prefer sandy plains sparsely covered with 

 vegetation, but when these become parched for want of rain it frequents the banks of 

 rivers or inland seas. Thus it is found on the shores of the Caspian (Radde, Ornis 

 Caucasica, p. 416), and possibly on those of the Red Sea (Heuglin, Orn. N.O.-Afr. ii. 

 p. 1019). Its occurrence in Egypt is, however, very doubtful. Its line of migration 

 appears to be across Arabia to the valley of the Upper Nile (I have a skin shot by Blanford 

 on August 15th at Rairo in Habab), and it winters in Africa south of the line. I have 

 skins from Damara-Land, Cape Colony, and Natal ; it has occurred as far north as Angola 

 (Bocage, Orn. d' Angola, p. 430) in the west, and the Transvaal (Ayres, Ibis, 1871, p. 263) 

 in the east. Its alleged occurrence in Java (Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 187) 

 probably refers to C. geoffroyi. 



Females are less brilliantly coloured than males, the chestnut on the breast is replaced 

 by brown suffused with chestnut, and the black band below it is absent. Males in winter 

 plumage are supposed to resemble females ; but I have a skin collected by Andersson on 

 February 13th in full breeding-dress, and another on December 27th in nearly full breeding- 

 dress, both from Objimbinque, and a third in November not quite so mature. I have also 

 two skins from Natal : one, shot by Major Feilden in November (Zoologist, 1882, p. 460), 

 is a young female; but the other, obtained by Capt. Reid (Zoologist, 1882, p. 342) on 

 December 26th, is a young male, and has almost assumed the chestnut breast and the 

 black band below it. Radde implies that this black band is only found in very old birds, 

 but this must be an error. It seems to me that all the supposed adult males in winter 

 plumage are birds of the year, and that the plumage of adult birds does not vary with the 

 seasons. 



If we regard the pale colour of the legs and feet as denoting affinity, the nearest allies 

 of the Caspian Sand-Plover are two American species — C. montanus inhabiting the inland 

 temperate regions, and C. wilsoni living on the tropical coasts. On the other hand, if we 

 accept the verdict of the American ornithologists, who found their genera in this group on 

 the shape of the bill, we may regard C. asiaticus as nearest allied to C. montanus, but must 

 look upon C. wilsoni as nearest related to C. geoffroyi. I have accepted this conclusion 

 provisionally, though I feel confident that future writers will discover its fallacy. 



Remarkable 

 resemblance 

 to C. vere- 

 dus. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Seasonal 

 and other 

 variations- 



Nearest 

 allies. 



