CHAKADKIUS. 149 



It is an inland bird during the breeding-season, but in winter it is almost entirely "Variations 

 confined to the sea-coast. The female differs from the male in having the chestnut on the seS) and 

 breast less briUiant than in the male ; the chestnut eye-stripe and nape are almost obsolete, season - 

 and the conspicuous black markings on the forehead, lores, and ear-coverts are replaced by 

 brown. Both the chestnut on the breast and the black markings on the head are 

 replaced by brown in the winter dress of both sexes, and in young in first plumage. 



The Mongolian Sand-Plover is nearest related to C. geoffroyi 1 , but it is also very Nearest 

 nearly allied to C. bicinctus, so closely indeed that it is sometimes very difficult to determine 

 the young in first plumage. 



CHARADRIUS BICINCTUS. 



CHESTNUT -BANDED PLOVER. 



Charadrius, subgen. jEgialophili majores, pedibus nigris : maxillse ami brevi (circa 8 millim.) : Diagnosis, 

 pectore aut (in adult.) nigro albo et castaneo fasciato, aut (in juv.) vix fasciato : supra- 

 caudalibus non albo terminatis. 



No local races of this species are known. Variations. 



Charadrius bicinctus, Jardine fy Selby, 111. Orn. i. pi. 28 (1825). Synonymy. 



iEgialitis bicinctus (Jard. fy Selby), Gould, Syn. Birds Austr. pi. 32. fig. 3 (1837). 

 Hiaticula biciucta {Jard. ty Selby), Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 16 (1848). 

 Ochthodromus bicinctus (Jard. fy Selby), Gould, Handb. Birds Austr. ii. p. 238 (1865). 



1 Dresser's remark (Birds of Europe, vii. p. 476) that Charadrius mongolicus and C. geoffroyi are " only 

 j ust specifically separable " is very extraordinary. Baird, Brewer, and Kidgway, who appear to me to place an 

 exaggerated value on the shape of the bill (Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 168), evidently regard these two 

 birds as generically distinct ! Though I have placed them in the same subsection of the same subgenus, I look 

 upon them as perfectly good species, never to be confounded at any age or in any plumage. Of the two 

 opposite errors it is difficult to say which is the more mistaken view. 



