214 



PLOVER. 



20. Charadrius fpinofus, Lin. Syj?. i. p. 256. iz. B. 



Var - A> Le Pluvier hupe de Perfe, Brif. Orn. v. p. 84. l^.—Baf. Oif. viii. p. 98. 



Black-breafted Indian Plover, Ed<w, pi. 47, (male). 

 Spar-winged Plover, Edvj. pi. 280. (female). 



Description. T ENGTH eleven inches and a half: breadth twenty-three 

 inches : weight four ounces. Bill a little more than one 

 inch, and black: top of the head gloffy black : hind head a little 

 crefted : cheeks, hind head, and fides of the neck, white : upper 

 part of the neck, back, fcapulars, rump, and upper tail coverts, 

 chefnut brown : throat and fore part of the neck black : bread 

 and upper part of the belly the fame ; the firft gloffed with, 

 violet: the lower part of the belly and vent white: wing coverts 

 like the back ; but thofe fartheft from the body, and fecondaries, 

 brownifh chefnut, tipped with white : greater quills black : the 

 tail four inches long ; even at the end ; white for two-thirds of 

 the length •, the reft black : legs deep brown. 

 Female. The other (fuppofed to be the female) is the fize of a Lap- 



wing. Bill and creft the fame : it differs chiefly in having the 

 whole of the neck white : the black on the throat only reaching 

 for an inch down : breaft and upper part of the belly black : 

 outer tail feathers tipped with white. Both of them have a fpur 

 on the bend of the wing. 

 Place. Thefe inhabit Rujfia-, and are very frequent near Aleppo, about 



the river Coic *. 



* Rnffel, p. 72. pi. II. — In the plate the bird feems to have a back toe, or at 

 leaft a fpur; though the text mentions only three toes in all. The having a 

 minute fpur is not uncommon in the Plover genus ; the fpecimen in the Britijb 

 Mufeum is furniftied with a fmall one. 



6 Le 



