VANELLUS. 227 



VANELLUS VENTRALIS. 



INDIAN SPUR- WINGED LAPWING. 

 Vanellus halluce nullo : humerorum tectricibus nigris : crista elongata, : calcaribus magnis. Diagnosis. 



No local races of this species are known. Variations. 



Pluvialis senegalensis armata, Brisson, Orn. v. p. 86 (1760, locality probably erroneous). Synonymy. 



Charadrius ventralis, fVagler, Syst. Av. p. 59 (1827). 



Charadrius duvaucelii, Lesson, Man. d'Orn. ii. p. 333 (1828). 



Charadrius bicolor, Temminck, PI. Col., letterpress to no. 526 (1832) . 



Philomachus ventralis {Wagler), Hodgson, Gray's Zool. Miscell. 1844, p. 86. 



Hoplopterus ventralis {Wagler), Blyth, Cat. Birds Mus. As. Soc. p. 261 (1849). 



Vanellus ventralis {Wagler), Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Cursores, p. 61 (1865). 



Plates. — Gray and Hardwicke, 111. Ind. Orn. pi. 50. Literature. 



Habits. — Jerdon, Birds of India, ii. p. 650. 



Eggs. — Harting, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, pi. lx. fig. 3. 



The Indian Spur-winged Lapwing has a large black patch on the belly, emphasized by Specific 

 the pure white of the surrounding plumage. It has a similar patch on the lesser wing- characters- 

 coverts extending to the carpal joint. Either of these characters is diagnostic, and the 

 latter is probably found in the young. 



It is a resident in North India east of the valley of the Indus, Burma, Cochin China, Geographi- 

 and Hainan (Swinhoe, Ibis, 1870, p. 3G1). It ascends the valleys of the Himalayas into c ?^ distribl1 - 

 Sikkim, but is not found in South India or Ceylon. It frequents the banks of rivers. 



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