CHAEADEITJS. 



165 



Charadrius ruficapillus, Temm. PL Col. no. 47. fig. 2 (1823) . 



iEgialitis' calms, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837, p. 154. 



Hiaticula ruficapilla (Temm.), Gray, List Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 71 (1844). 



vEgialophilus ruficapillus (Temm.), Gould, Handb. Birds Austr. ii. p. 235 (1865) 



Synonymy. 



Plates. — Temminck, PI. Col. no. 47; Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 17. 

 Habits. — Gould, Handb. Birds Austr. ii. p. 235. 

 Eggs.— Harting, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, pi. lx. fig. 8. 



Literature. 



The Red-capped Plover is the Australian representative of the Kentish Plover, and 

 therefore belongs to the section of the genus distinguished as JEgialophili minores. In this 

 section there are five species, of which it is one, which have nearly black legs' and feet. Of 

 the other four three may be disposed of because they have white nuchal collars, emphasized 

 in the adult birds of two species by black collars below them. The Red-capped . Plover has 

 neither black nor white nuchal collar, but the rusty red on the head and neck is sometimes 

 confined to the nape, and forms a rusty-red nuchal collar. The fourth dark-legged species 

 may be disposed of by the smaller size of the Australian species, and by the fact that when 

 adult it has black lores, and when young brown lores. The lores of its Chilian ally are 

 always white. The latter is a small species, as might be expected of a Charadrius whose 

 range is for the most part tropical. The length of wing from carpal joint varies from 4 - 2 

 to 3 - 8 inch. 



The female scarcely differs from the male in colour, nor is it known that winter 

 plumage differs from that of summer ; but in young in first plumage, and apparently in 

 birds of the year, the black on the head, neck, and sides of the breast is replaced by brown, 

 and the rusty red of the head and nape is scarcely perceptible. 



It is a resident on almost every part of the Australian and Tasmanian coasts, frequently 

 ascending the creeks and rivers for some distance into the interior. It has once occurred 

 in New Zealand (Kirk, Trans. New Zealand Inst. xii. p. 246). 



It is rather remarkable that the nearest ally of this Australian species should be 

 C. occidentalis, on the Pacific side of the Andes, and that its next nearest ally should be 

 C. collaris, on the Atlantic side of that range. If the absence of a white nuchal collar be 

 an important character, which seems probable, we may assume its next nearest relation to 

 be C. tenellus, from Madagascar, which in South Africa may have intermarried with 

 C. cantianus to produce C. marginatus. It is, however, not unlikely that the fact that the 

 partial differentiation of C. marginatus from the older and tropical form, C. tenellus, should 

 have been in the direction of C. cantianus is only a coincidence. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Plumage of 

 young. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Nearest 

 allies. 



