THE SMALL SWALLOW-PLOVER. 
363 
711. GLAREOLA LACTEA. 
THE SMALL SWALLOW-PLOVER. 
Glareola lactea, Temm. PI. Col. 399 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 632 ; Hume, Nests and 
Eggsy p. 568 ; id. S. F. iii. p. 179 j Bl. B. Bunn. p. 154 ; Armstrong, S. F. iv. 
p. 338; Oates, S. F. v. p. 164; Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 469; Hume 8f 
Dav. 8. F. vi. p. 455 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 112 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 984 ; 
Oates, S. F. x. p. 237. 
Description. — Male and female. Upper plumage and wing-coverts pale 
brown ; upper tail-coverts white ; winglet and primary-coverts black ; 
primaries dark brown^ the earlier ones with white shafts ; secondaries 
white tipped with brown; tertiaries like the back; central tail-feathers 
black_, white at base ; the others with an increasing amount of white and 
less blacky the outermost feathers becoming white merely tipped with 
black ; forehead and a line from the bill to the eye blackish brown ; breast 
pale ashy ; chin, throat and remainder of lower plumage white ; under 
wing- coverts and axillaries smoky black. 
Iris dark brown ; terminal half of bill black, basal half red, changing to 
yellowish brown at the gape ; legs, feet and claws black. 
Length 6*8 inches, tail 2*1, wing 5*8, tarsus '8, bill from gape '75. The 
female is of the same size. 
The Small Swallow-Plover is found abundantly on the larger rivers and 
creeks of the Province, except in the southern part of Tenasserim, where it 
appears to be absent. 
It occurs over the greater part of India up to the Indus river, in Ceylon, 
and probably throughout the Indo-Burmese countries. 
This Swallow-Plover is confined entirely to sand-banks and to the low flat 
shores of the larger streams. It is a constant resident and is usually seen 
in large flocks. During the day they run about the sand, and in the 
evening they fly about like Swallows in search of winged insects. They 
breed in April, laying three or four eggs in a small depression in the 
sand. 
