SPUR- WING ED PLOVER. 11 



pitcliy black; a sliarp strong spur on eacli carpal joint. Length 

 eleven inelies; from carpal joint to tip of wing eight inches; 

 tarsus two inches and a half; beak one inch and one fifth; tail 

 three inches and a half. 



The European localities of the Spur-winged Plover 

 are Turkey, Greece, Russia, and occasionally Italy. 

 M. Nordniann records having shot a male out of a 

 flock of eight or ten, near Odessa, in 1837, in company 

 with a large flock of the Sociable Plover, Vaiiellus 

 gregarius. In Africa it has a long range. It is very 

 common in Senegal, whence it derives the name given 

 to it by Brisson. Mr. Taylor (Ibis, vol. i., p. 58,) says 

 it is about the commonest bird in Egypt, and very 

 tame. I do not find it included in Captain Loche's 

 "Catalogue of the Avifauna of Algeria." In Asia we 

 have it recorded by Mr. Tristram, in "Notes on Birds 

 Observed in Southern Palestine," (Ibis, vol. i., p. oQ,) 

 two specimens having been seen on the banks of the 

 Jordan. Captain Irby (Ibis, vol. iii., p. 237,) mentions 

 the occurrence of this bird commonly on the sandy 

 banks and shores of the Gogra and Choka in India, 

 where he says he has frequently seen it sitting on the 

 backs of the crocodiles and gavials. Mr. Taylor has 

 recorded a similar interesting fact of an allied species, 

 Pluvianus cBgy2)tius. 



Edwards has figured this bird as the Black-breasted 

 Indian Plover, pi. 47; and under its right designation 

 as the Spur-winged Plover, pi. 280. Latham also des- 

 cribed what he considered a variety of the Spur-winged 

 Plover, assigning Edwards' No. 47 to the male, and 

 his 280 to the female. Dr. Adams does not mention 

 this bird among the "Birds of Cashmere." 



Temminck suggests the probability of the Spur-winged 



