178 MALAYAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



of Terns and shore-birds, which'he had netted on the sands near the 

 mouth of the Rloar river ; and among them were several Golden Plo- 

 vers, all in various stages of the breeding-plumage ; so probably they 

 nest somewhere towards the north of the peninsula, though in Singa- 

 pore and the south they are most certainly migratory. 



Iu Singapore, though no very large bags were to be made, they 

 often, during October, afforded me a capital afternoon's sport. In 

 the neighbourhood of Tanglin the best places for them were the 

 Chinamen's gardens and the cultivated hills near Cluny ; but there 

 was also good ground near Changi, at Gaylang, and on the Trafalgar 

 estate. 



When shot at some distance inland they are very good eating ; but 

 a coast diet spoils them for the table : some I shot on the sea-shore 

 at Penaga, in Province Wellesley, were quite uneatable, having a 

 strong, fishy, decayed- seaweed kind of flavour. 



In my notes are many references to this species, among them the 

 following : — 



" Tanglin, Singapore, 2nd October. — Early this morning three 

 Golden Plovers were running about our lawn-tennis ground, close 

 to the public road ; they were very tame, allowing me within a few 

 yards before they rose, and even then flying but a short distance. 

 In the evening, at dusk, while several of us were playing tennis, 

 laughing and talking, a Golden Plover circled round two or three 

 times, then settled on the ground in our midst. I never saw one 

 so tame, but believe it was migrating, and so tired as to be regard- 

 less of danger and glad to rest anywhere." 



^Egialitis geoffroyi (Wagi.). The Sand-Plover. 



Found in great numbers on the coasts of the peninsula during 

 the north-east monsoon. Towards the end of November, 1879, I 

 found enormous flocks of them at low tide on the shore of Pulau 

 Batam ; they were then all in the brown-and- white winter plumage. 

 One, which I shot out of a flock of Charadriina3 which rose from a 

 rock in mid channel between Pulau Ubin and Singapore, was 8f- 

 inches in length ; hides dark brown ; beak at front \-% inch j legs 

 black ; tarsus If inch ; upper parts and streak below the eye dull 

 brown ; forehead, tip of tail, and the underparts white ; date 10th 

 January. 



