MALAYAN ORNITHOLOGY. 177 



occasion have I seen any here ; and their being in such numbers, 

 and so easily approached, makes it still more probable that they 

 are on passage. "When fired at the big flock broke up into small 

 parties of from ten to twenty ; but after a short time they all re- 

 turned to the sand-banks. While on the wing, flying close over the 

 surface of the water, the most noticeable poiuts about them were 

 their Swallow-like wings and white rumps." 



In plumage the sexes are alike ; but immature birds which I shot 

 in Singapore during September were not nearly so decidedly mark- 

 ed as the adults, moreover they were much mottled and freckled 

 with brown. The pectinated middle claw, large eye, wide gape, 

 their flight, and the way they crouch flat on the ground, all seem to 

 point to a relationship between these birds and the Caprimulgida?. 



Sqtjatarola Helvetica (Gm.). The Grej Plover. 



Identical with the European species. The Grey Plover is com- 

 mon among the islands and along the coasts of the peninsula from 

 October to March, but appears to breed further north. On 13th 

 April, 1879, 1 had over a dozen brought to me, which had just been 

 caught on the coast a few miles south of Malacca ; and of these one 

 showed considerable signs of the breeding-plumage, its breast being 

 much blotched with black. During October, November and De- 

 cember, some may always be shot on the shores of Pulau Ubin, 

 Pulau Nongsa, and the other rock-girt islands near Singapore ; a 

 female which I shot off Pulau Ubin was sitting on an isolated rock 

 in company with a large flock of Ringed Plover {Mgialitis geoffroyi) . 



Chaeadritjs fulyl t s (Gm.). 



The Eastern Golden Plover is very plentiful during the north- 

 east monsoon, but goes north in April to breed, returning again to 

 the south of the peninsula towards the end of September. In Perak, 

 during January and February, I found them in large flocks on the 

 edges of all the jheels, particularly those in the neighbourhood of 

 Kota Lama, Saiyong, and Sengan ; but they got scarcer in March. 

 The 8th April was the latest date on which I shot one, which, in 

 company with another, was sitting on a sand-bank in the middle of 

 the Perak river ; it had almost fully assumed the black breast of 

 the breeding-season.- In 1879, while stationed at Singapore, as 

 late as 13th April, a Malay fisherman brought me a large cage full 



