254 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [March, 



take this opportunity to describe, is of a form nearly allied to Cursorius, from 

 which it differs chiefly in having a much more robust and shorter bill, and in the 

 first primary being rather shorter than the second and third. The eye, also, 

 would appear to be very much larger and more Plover-like — at least in the 

 Indian species ; but a second representative certainly exists in the Cursorius 

 chalcopterus, Tern., of Africa, the eye of which is however represented as being- 

 small in the coloured figure published by Messrs. Mitchell and G. R. Gray. 



Macrotarsius bitorquatus, Jerdon. Length 9£ or 10 in., of wing 6| in., and 

 tail 3 in. ; bill to forehead § in., and very nearly £ in. in least vertical depth, 

 about the middle; tarse 1\ in.; middle toe and nail | in. Colour sandy-brown 

 above, with a faint pink gloss; the dorsal feathers slightly margined with 

 rusty-brown, and the wing-coverts more conspicuously with pale rufescent : 

 crown of the head black, with rusty lateral margins to the feathers ; a broad 

 white supercilium, commencing with the lores, is continued round the occiput ; 

 and there is a less defined (but equally conspicuous) rufescent-white streak 

 along the mesial line of the head ; ear-coverts streaked dusky and ferruginous : 

 throat white, with a broad rufous band below it ; this is bordered by a narrow 

 white semi-collar, continued to below the ear-coverts, and narrowly edged 

 above and below with dusky ; then follows a broad brown gorget, and finally 

 another white collar, margined above and below with dusky; this again is suc- 

 ceeded by brown, forming an ill-defined band on the lower paVt of the breast ; 

 and the rest of the lower-parts are isabelline, with white upper and lower tail- 

 coverts ; primaries and their coverts black, the first two primaries largely and 

 obliquely marked with white, which is reduced to a large subterminal spot on the 

 inner web of the third primary, and a small analogous spot on the fourth : tail 

 white at base, extending for two-thirds of the length of the exterior web of its 

 outermost feather ; the terminal half of the tail black, passing basally into brown, 

 and all but the middle feathers having a small white spot at the extremity of 

 their inner webs. Terminal half of the bill corneous and black, the basal half 

 pale (probably yellow in the fresh bird), and the legs also pale. Inhabits the 

 eastern Ghats of the peninsula of India. 



A natatorial bird that may be redescribed with advantage, is the African 

 representative of the common " Brahminee Goose," or u Ruddy Sheldrake" of 

 authors, (Casarca rutila,) of India. 



Casarca cam, (Gin.) This bird is correctly described by Sonnerat as VOie 

 Sauvage a ttte grise de la chte de Coromandel : being thus mistaken for C. rutila 

 of Asia, from which it is very obviously distinct, however closely allied. The 

 male (judging the sex from analogy with that of C. rutila) has the head and 



ally, this species is replaced by the nearly allied C. albonotatus, Tickell : and in S. India 

 and Ceylon by the equally allied C, maJvratterms, Sykes. 



