48 



is very shy and never common. All the specimens he obtained were procured at Objimbinque. 

 Verreaux records it from Orange River, and Professor Barboza du Bocage (J. f. O. 1876, p. 295) 

 from Rio Bengo, Angola. Mr. E. L. Layard writes respecting this species (B. of S. Afr. p. 299) 

 as follows, viz. : — " Mr. Amot, who forwarded the only three specimens that have reached me, 

 writes, ' Found together in flocks of fifteen or twenty, very far away from water. They are 

 scarce, and I only see them after showers of rain, which bring out small coleoptera and animal 

 life of that sort, on which these birds seem to feed, and get enormously fat.' Procured near 

 Colesberg." Mr. Ayres, who obtained it in the Transvaal, says (Ibis, 1871, p. 263), "One day 

 as I was trudging down to the river to have an afternoon's fishing, I found four of these Plovers 

 on the open flats outside Potchefstroom. They had somewhat the appearance of Burchell's 

 Courser when on the ground, but did not run so fast. They ran and then suddenly stopped, 

 with their bodies horizontal ready for flight, and, being much the colour of the ground, were 

 not easily seen. They uttered a short ' chuck ' whilst rising. I bagged two at one shot. On 

 a subsequent occasion I saw two others which I did not obtain." 



1 find but little on record respecting the habits of the present species, which appears to 

 approach much more closely to the Ring-Plovers than to the Dotterel. Mr. Harting unites it 

 generically with the latter ; but, as I have lately ascertained, he is wrong in so doing. Eudromias 

 morinellus, which is the type of that genus, has a very peculiar and characteristic sternum ; and 

 when I exhibited the egg of the present species at a meeting of the Zoological Society in 1875 I 

 stated (P. Z. S. 1875, p. 98) that I had grave doubts as to whether this bird was a true Dotterel. 

 After considerable trouble I have now succeeded in obtaining a skeleton of JEgialitis asiatica ; 

 and Professor Newton, to whom I gave it for examination and comparison, informs me that the 

 sternum differs greatly from that of Eudromias morinellus, and approaches closely to that of 

 JEgialitis hiaticula, being therefore that of a true JEgialitis. 



I find but little on record respecting the habits of the present species ; and until quite lately 

 its eggs were unknown. I was fortunate enough to procure an egg from the Kirghis steppes 

 through Mr. Schliiter, and have since obtained the young in down, which I have figured. The 

 egg is oval in shape, tapering somewhat towards one end, and measures 1*25 by T07 inch. It 

 lias more the character of a Ring-Plover's egg than that of a Dotterel, the spots being less 

 blotchy than in the eggs of this latter and smaller, and it is darker and more green in tinge of 

 ground-colour. It is warm buff with a faint greenish tinge, the spots being nearly black. 



A very good figure of this Plover is given by Mr. Harting (I. c); but he figures it there with 

 lead-grey legs, which is certainly an error; and I may also remark that his specimen has the 

 upper parts much darker than the one I have figured and described. 



The specimens figured are : — on the one Plate the adult male and female in summer dress ; 

 and on the second Plate, with JEgialitis geoffroyi the present species in winter dress is figured. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. E. E. Dresser. 



a, ^ , b, 2 , c, pull. Kirghis steppes, June, d, juv. Kirghis steppes, July 2nd, 1877 [W. Schliiter). e, f. 

 Transvaal (Ayres). 



3q2 



