150 



CHAEADKIUS. 



Literature. Plates. — Jard. & Selby, 111. Orn. i. pi. 28 ; Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 16. 



Habits. — Potts, Trans. New Zealand Inst. ii. p. 67. 

 Eggs. — Buller, Birds of New Zealand, p. 211. 



Specific 

 characters 

 of adults. 



Specific 

 characters 

 of young. 



The Chestnut-banded Plover in breeding-plumage is easily recognized by the bands 

 across its breast, the upper narrow and black, separated by a narrow white band from the 

 lower one, which is broad and chestnut. These two bands are acquired in the first autumn, 

 before the feathers of the upper parts have lost their rusty margins. When once acquired 

 they are never entirely lost, though they become very obscure in winter, as might be 

 expected of birds which principally frequent the shore. There is no difference between the 

 plumage of the male and that of the female, but young birds before their first autumn 

 moult are difficult to diagnose. From the young of C. asiaticus and C. montanus they are 

 at once distinguished by their black legs ; from those of C. wilsoni, C. obscurus, C. geoffroyi, 

 and C.frotilalis by the smallness of the terminal arch of the bill, which measures '3 inch or 

 less instead of "4 inch or more. From the young of C. falklandicus they may be dis- 

 tinguished by not having the upper tail-coverts conspicuously darker than the rump ; but 

 with the young of C. mongolicus they are often confounded. The usually longer tarsus 

 and more slender bill are variable characters which cannot be relied upon, and there is no 

 difference in length of wing. The only available characters appear to be that the young of 

 C. bicinctus has the tail slightly more than two inches long, with the central upper tail- 

 coverts of the same colour as the rest of the upper parts ; whilst the young of C. mongolicus 

 has the tail slightly less than two inches long, the central upper tail-coverts having 

 white margins. 



The latter character is as conspicuous in adult birds (except in abraded plumage), and 

 is strongly marked in C. geoffroyi, but less distinctly in C. asiaticus, C. obscurus, and 

 C. montanus. 



This species belongs to the group of JEgialophili majores, the length of wing varying 

 from 5-3 to 4*9 inch. 



The Chestnut-banded Plover is principally a shore bird, and frequents the entire 

 coast of Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and Lord Howe's Island. After the breeding- 

 season it associates in flocks, which occasionally visit the grassy plains inland. Travers 

 found it on the Chatham Islands (Hutton, Ibis, 1872, p. 246), nearly 500 miles east of 

 New Zealand ; but its alleged occurrence in Hainan and in Calcutta are obviously cases 

 of mistaken identity. Both skins are in my collection ; the first mentioned is an example of 

 C. mongolicus, and the last of C. dealbatus. 



It is nearest allied to C. falklandicus, and very closely so to C. mongolicus ; from the 

 parent stock of which both species must be regarded as post-glacial offshoots. 



