494 



writes that in April he found it common in Crete, but all had left by the 15 th May. Mr. Robson 

 says that it is pretty numerous in European and Asiatic Turkey, and a constant resident in the 

 country ; and Dr. Finsch states that it breeds on the streams of Bulgaria quite high up the 

 Balkan. Professor yon Nordmann speaks of it as being very common in Southern Russia, 

 arriving near Odessa early in March ; and it appears to be tolerably common in Asia Minor. 

 Canon Tristram obtained it on several occasions on the Kishon, in Palestine, and he believes that 

 he saw it more than once on the shores of Galilee ; but it is, he adds, much less numerous than 

 JEgialitis hiaticula. It is recorded from North-east Africa by all the travellers who have written 

 on the ornithology of that country. Captain Shelley says that it is resident and very abundant 

 throughout Egypt and Nubia. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., writes to me, "it is a resident, univer- 

 sally distributed, and very common. I imagine they generally breed by the river ; but at Gebel 

 Silsilis a small flock had located themselves at the brink of the desert, a mile inland, at a place 

 resembling Thetford warren, in Norfolk, where JE. hiaticula breeds inland ;" but Von Heuglin 

 says that he only observed it in Egypt in the winter season, and that it is nowhere common in 

 that country. He met with it sparingly on the shores of the Red Sea, on the Nile and its 

 branches to the vicinity of the equator, westwards in the Req swamp. According to Loche it is 

 tolerably numerous in Algeria, where some few remain to breed ; and Mr. O. Salvin met with it 

 in the neighbourhood of the marsh of Zana during the breeding-season. Mr. Drake does not 

 record it from Tangier ; but Colonel Irby found it very common there in April on river-banks. 

 It occurs on the west side of Africa as far south as the Gaboon. It has been obtained at Senegal 

 and on the Gambia. Verreaux records it from Casamanse, Pel from the Gold Coast ; Governor 

 Ussher shot one at Accra ; and DuChaillu obtained it on the Gaboon. On the east side of the 

 continent it has been recorded from South Mozambique by Dr. Peters ; and there is a specimen 

 in the Berlin Museum from Mauritius. 



To the eastward it is met with as far as China. De Filippi found it common in summer on 

 the sandy beds of streams in Northern Persia ; and Mr. Blanford believes that he saw it on the 

 borders of the lake at Shiraz in June. It is generally distributed in India, being found, 

 Dr. Jerdon writes (B. of India, ii. p. 641), throughout that country "in open plains, ploughed 

 land, dried-up paddy-fields, and the edges of tanks and rivers, as well as on sandbanks and 

 churrs. It is generally in small flocks, from half a dozen to twenty or more, feeding not very 

 close to each other, and running about in a lively manner, frequently taking flight, circling round 

 with a cheerful whistling note, and alighting again near the same spot." Dr. Jerdon includes 

 two species of Little Ringed Plovers, one under the name of JEgialitis philippensis (Scop.) and 

 the other under that of JEgicditis minutus (Pall.), both of which appear to me to be referable to 

 the present species ; and I may add that though I find, as in the series I examined of 2Eg. hiati- 

 cula, that there is also in the series of examples of the present species a considerable variation in 

 size, I cannot discover any characteristics whereby two species can be discriminated. Under the 

 name of JEgialitis minutus Dr. Jerdon further records the present species as found in the Deccan, 

 generally among hills, and also from the top of the eastern Ghats inland from Mellore. It 

 occurs in Burmah, and was obtained at Tonghoo by Mr. Wardlaw Ramsay. Throughout South 

 Siberia it appears to be very generally distributed. Dr. L. von Schrenck says that it inhabits the 

 entire Amoor country, and is very numerous on the Amoor river, especially when it is low and 



