354 



median feathers marked and tipped with buffy grey ; underparts below the breast white : terminal half 

 of the bill black, the basal half, the wattles in front of the eye, and the eyelids lake-red ; feet and legs 

 yellow, claws black; iris crimson. Total length about 1T50 inches, culmen l - 45, wing 8'22, tail 4 - 78, 

 tarsus 3 '2. 



Young in doivn (Sambhur, June 20th). Upper parts sandy grey, mottled with buffy brown and black; a 

 black patch behind the eye ; sides of the head below the eye buffy white ; centre of the back distinctly 

 marked all along with black ; throat and upper neck sooty blackish ; rest of the underparts white. 



Obs. The sexes are alike, differing only slightly in size, and there is, so far as I can see, no difference between 

 the winter and summer plumage. The young bird has pale sandy-buff margins to the feathers, the 

 crown of the head is pale brown, becoming black on the sides and the hinder portion ; throat and 

 sides of the face white ; the sides of the head from the hinder ear-coverts dusky black, this colour 

 extending over the lower throat and chest ; wattles very slightly developed. 



The range of the Red-wattled Lapwing extends from Transcaspia in the west to Assam in the 

 east, being replaced in Burma by a closely allied species, Lolivanellus atronuchalis. Northward 

 it ranges as high as Gilgit, and in the south it is found as far as Ceylon. 



According to Messrs. Radde and Walter {I. c.) it breeds commonly in the eastern portion of 

 Transcaspia, both on the Tedgend and Murghab, as also on the Kuschk. They first observed it 

 on the 1st April, 1886, at Kara-bend, and in 1887 found it generally distributed on the 

 Murghab on the 6th and 7th April, but the largest number passed on the 24th and 25th April. 

 Its loud, incessant cry, especially at its nesting-place, they say, becomes most tedious. 



Mr. Zarudny speaks of it as being a very common bird along the Tedgend and the central 

 part of the Murghab, as also in the oasis of Pinde. Mr. Blanford met with it once in Persia, 

 near Sarvistan, east of Shiraz, in June, where it was, he adds, very rare ; and I may here 

 remark that there are specimens in the British Museum from Muscat, in Arabia, and from 

 Mesopotamia. 



Lieut. H. E. Barnes speaks of it (Stray Feathers, ix. p. 459) as being rare near Chaman, in 

 Northern Afghanistan; but Sir O. St. John found it common in Southern Afghanistan, and 

 Col. Swinhoe says (Ibis, 1882, p. 120) that it was common throughout the Bolan and all 

 through the country to Kandahar. Mr. Scully obtained it once at Gilgit in April ; and 

 Dr. Jerdon says it is one of the best known birds of India, occurring everywhere from Ceylon up 

 to Cashmere, to the west of which Mr. Ball met with it in the higher valleys of the Suliman 

 hills up to an altitude of 3500 feet. Mr. Blanford obtained it in Baluchistan, where, however, 

 it was by no means common, but Mr. A. O. Hume states that it is a common bird in Sind. 

 Capt. Butler met with it on the island of Hendjam, in the Persian Gulf. In Cutch, Guzerat, 

 and Kattiawar it is common, as also on the Sambhur Lake, where, according to Mr. Adam, it 

 breeds from March to July. In Oodeypore, Mr. Hume met with it in February, and in 

 Jodhpore, during the prevalence of a drought in the cold season of 1877-78, he found one or 

 more pairs about every hamlet. Throughout the Bengal Presidency it is common, and 

 Mr. Cripps records it from Furreedpore as resident, but it becomes rarer further east, and is 

 only a straggler in North-east Cachar in March and April. In the south it is found in 

 Travancore both in the hills and on the plains; and in Ceylon, according to Col. Legge (B. of 



