THE GREY PLOVEH. 
365 
Length 10 indies^ tail 2*5_, wing 6-3, tarsus 1*8^ bill from gape 1*1. The 
sexes are of about the same size. 
The Eastern Golden Plover differs from the Western form, C. pluvialis, 
in having the axillaries smoky brown instead of pure white. The 
American form C. virginicus has tlie axillaries of the same colour as those 
of C. fulvuSy but is separated on account of its greater size. 
The Golden Plover is abundant during the cold season throughout 
Burmah_, arriving in September. The majority leave us again in November 
and December, but a considerable number remain till April or May. 
It has a wide distribution, being found over the greater part of Asia, 
straggling into Europe and Africa at times, and ranging on the east down 
to Australia and some of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. 
The Golden Plover frequents waste ground, plains of grass and wet 
paddy-fields, and also the edges of rivers, and is generally met with in 
flocks of considerable size. It breeds in China, and also it is said in some 
parts of India, laying four eggs in a hollow lined with a few blades of 
grass. The eggs are yellowish blotched with blackish sepia. 
Genus SQUATAEOLA, Leach. 
713. SQUATAEOLA HELVETICA. 
THE GKEY PLOVER. 
Tringa helvetica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 250. Squatarola helvetica, Jerd. B, 
Ind. ii. p. G35 ; Dresser, Birds Eur. vii. p. 455 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 313 j 
Bl. B. Burm. p. 153 j Scully, S. F. iv. p. 184 ; Armstrong, >S'. i^. iv. p. 338 ; 
David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 424 ; Hume Sf Dav. S. F. vi. p. 455 ; Hume, S. F. 
viii. p. 112; Ley ye, Birds Ceylon, p. 929; Oates, S. F. x. p. 237; Kelliam, This, 
1882, p. 7. 
Description. — Male and female in summer. Sides of the forehead, lores, 
sides of the head, chin, throat, breast and abdomen deep black ; vent, 
thighs and under tail-coverts white ; axillaries black tipped with brownish ; 
the whole head from the forehead to the nape, the upper neck and two 
broad bands continued down to the sides of the breast white, the centres 
of the feathers more or less brown ; back, rump, scapulars, tertiaries and 
wing- coverts a mixture of white, black and brown, more or less disposed in 
the shape of irregular bars ; upper tail-coverts white barred with brown ; 
tail white barred with broader brown bars ; quills brown, a portion of the 
shaft and a long patch on the inner webs white. 
Wlale and female in winter. Forehead, lores, cheeks, chin and throat 
white with a few minute brown streaks ; feathers immediately round the 
