444 



a very distinct eyebrow, thence carried down each side of the neck on to the sides of the breast, thus 

 separating the golden back from the black breast by a very broad white line ; a very narrow frontal 

 line, lores, cheeks, ear-coverts, entire throat, and centre of the breast black, becoming slightly mixed 

 with white on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; sides of the body white, barred across with black, 

 the upper breast tinged with golden and the lower flanks with smoky brown; under wing-coverts 

 smoky brown, with a dash of white here and there; axillary plumes entirely smoky brown, with a 

 white tip ; bill black ; feet greyish ; iris dusky brown. 



Obs. The above description is taken from a fully plumaged male in the collection of Mr. Swinhoe, procured 

 by him near Canton on the 2nd of May 1860. We have not been able to examine a female in breeding- 

 dress ; for a bird of this sex procured by Mr. Swinhoe at the same time and place is only just beginning 

 to assume the black plumage on the breast. Probably, therefore, the full black breast is not assumed 

 in the female till some time after the male has attained his complete summer livery, as is the case 

 with many Limicolce. 



Winter plumage. Upper surface of the body much the same as in summer, but the golden spots not nearly 

 so rich in colour or so large, and all of them more or less tinged with pale fulvous ; the nape rich 

 golden colour ; forehead and lores buffy white ; the eyebrows and sides of the face a little brighter in 

 colour, and marked with small specks of brown ; there is no indication of the white band along the 

 sides of the neck ; wing-coverts margined with whitish, with no trace of golden spots ; under surface 

 of the body buffy white, the lower part of the throat and chest marked with specks of brown like the 

 cheeks ; sides of the body and abdomen marked with obsolete mottlings of greyish brown, rather more 

 distinctly indicated on the flanks and under tail-coverts ; tail for the most part smoky brown, the centre 

 feathers slightly darker, with no traces of the transverse bars, but most of the feathers notched on the 

 outer web with golden or pale buff, the outer ones broadly edged with white, and slightly marked with 

 this colour in the body of the feather. 



Young birds. The young, according to Jerdon (B. of Ind. iii. p. 637), have the colours somewhat as in the 

 winter plumage ; but the yellow spots above are less marked, the breast is more dusky grey, and they 

 do not become so black the first summer as they do subsequently. 



Obs. The very full account of the synonymy given by Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub in their ' Fauna Central- 

 Polynesiens' leaves us little to say on the subject; but we do not see any difficulty in referring 

 Latham's var. A of the Fulvous Plover, on which Wagler founded his Charadrius xanthocheilus, to the 

 present bird. It is clearly a specimen in full winter plumage. We are aware that Wagler's title has 

 beeu erroneously applied as a synonym of Eudromias asiaticus ; but on this subject see some excellent 

 remarks by Mr. Harting (Ibis, 1870, p. 205). The name longipes of Temminck, by which the present 

 species is recorded in so many standard works and essays, does not appear to have ever been pubbshed. 

 Such excellent bibliologists as Dr. Finsch and Professor Schlegel have never stated the book in which 

 this title may be found, though they have both quoted it in their later writings. The first notice that 

 we can find of the existence of this name is in Prince Bonaparte's list of wading birds pubbshed in the 

 ' Comptes Rendus ' for 1856. 



We now give an analysis of the specimens which the kindness of friends has placed at our disposal, inas- 

 much as great difficulty exists in determining the characters which separate Ch. fulvus and Ch. virginicus of 

 America. Lord Walden, Mr. R. Swinhoe, and Mr. J. Edmund Harting have placed at our service the 

 beautiful series of Golden Plovers contained in their respective collections, and an account of these birds 

 will be of use to the future student of the present species and its allies. Of the distinctness of Ch. fulvus 



