166 



CHAEADEIUS. 



CHARADRIUS PERONI. 



MALAY SAND-PLOVER. 



Diagnosis. Chabadritjs, subgen. AZgialophili minores, pedibus pallidis : infra nucha? collare album fascia aut 

 nigra (in adult. ), aut ferruginea (in juv.), ssepe pectore conjuncta. 



Synonymy. 



Literature. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Variations. In this species, as in C. melodus, the black nuchal collar sometimes meets across the 

 breast, but it is not known that this peculiarity has any geographical significance. 



Charadrius peroni, S. Midler, Temm. fide Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Cursores, p. 33 (1865). 

 iEgialites perronii {Temm.), Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 139. 



Plates. — Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. viii. pi. x. fig. 2. 

 Habits. — Undescribed. 



Eggs, in the British Museum, collected by Low on Labuan, measure 1*3 by "9 inch; the 

 markings resemble those of typical eggs of C. cantianus, but on a cream-coloured ground. 



The Malay Sand-Plover is perfectly distinct from any of its allies. It belongs to the 

 section of the genus which I have characterized as JEgialophili minores, and when adult 

 may be distinguished from all its allies by its combination of the two characters, black 

 nuchal collar and pale legs and feet. There is no difference between the plumage of winter 

 and that of summer, nor is it known that adult males differ from adult females ; but in 

 young in first plumage the black on the crown, lores, ear-coverts, breast, and back is all 

 replaced by rust-colour, causing it to resemble C. nivosus or C. dealbatus. The two latter 

 species being, however, only resident forms of the migratory C. cantianus, have not yet 

 acquired the rounded wings of resident birds. In all three forms of C. cantianus the 

 distance from the carpal joint to the end of the longest primary-coverts is greater than that 



