CHARADEIUS BICINCTUS, (nobis). 

 Chesnut-breasted Dottrel. 



PLATE XXVIII. 



C. supra brunescens fasciis flavescentibus, fronte albo ; subtus albus cingulo pecto- 

 rali nigro, altero abdominali castaneo. 



Chesnut-breasted Plover, Lath. Gen. Hist, of Birds, vol. ix. p. 324. No. 10. 



W e received the skin of this species from New Holland some years since, 

 and we have not met with it in any collection except the Museum of the 

 Linnean Society of London, where there is a specimen in apparently im- 

 mature plumage. We have referred it to the Chesnut-breasted Plover of 

 Latham, whose description of that bird agrees nearly with our specimen ; 

 and we do not think very slight differences, especially in birds so liable to 

 vary as those of this genus, are sufficient to form permanent distinctions. 



The length is about seven inches and a half : the bill is black, lighter 

 towards the base : the base of the upper mandible is surrounded by a nar- 

 row circle of black, which extends in a line from the rictus to the eye, and 

 under it, upon the lower auricular feathers ; a band of white crosses the 

 forehead from eye to eye, immediately above which the feathers are black, 

 but gradually blend into the uniform pale clove-brown tint which covers 

 the whole upper parts : the greater wing-coverts, and some feathers on the 

 back, are edged with pale yellowish-brown ; the outer webs of the quills 

 are deep blackish-brown, the inner webs are paler ; the shaft of the first 

 quill is white : the throat is white, ending in a crescent shape on the up- 

 per part of the breast : the rest of the under parts are pure white, but the 

 breast is crossed with a deep black crescent-shaped band, of nearly three 

 quarters of an inch in breadth, shaded at the sides into the colour of the 

 upper parts : another band, nearly twice the breadth, and of a bright ches- 

 nut colour, crosses the belly, extending downwards almost to the legs, and 



