374 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Genus LOBIVANELLUS, StricM. 
721. LOBIVANELLUS ATRONUCHALIS. 
THE BURMESE LAPWING. 
Sarcogramma atrogularis, Bl. J. A. S. B. xxxi. p. 345 (note). Lobivanellus 
atronuchalis {Bl.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p, 648 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 576 ; 
id. 8. F. iii. p. 181 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 152 Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 675 ; 
Hume 8f Dav. S. F. yi. p. 457 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 112 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 238 ; 
Kelham, Ibis, 1882, p. 10. 
Description. — Male and female. The whole head_, neck and breast black ; 
a broad band over the ear-coverts white ; a collar on the hind neck white ; 
back, rump, scapulars, tertiaries, lesser and median coverts brownish 
grey, glossed with purple on the coverts and with green elsewhere ; upper 
tail-coverts white; tail basally white, then black and broadly tipped white, 
except the two centre feathers, which are tipped with pale grey ; greater 
wing-coverts grey broadly tipped with white ; primaries and secondaries 
black, the bases white, increasing in extent till the last secondary is 
nearly wholly white ; under plumage from the breast white. 
Terminal half of bill black ; the remainder, the eyelids and wattles red ; 
iris crimson ; legs and feet pale yellow ; claws black. 
Length 13 inches, tail 4'5, wing 8'5, tarsus 3, bill from gape 1*3. The 
female is of the same size. 
This species is very closely allied to L. indicus ; but in that bird the 
white bands over the ear-coverts are produced and meet on the hind neck. 
Mr. Blyth when describing the present species named it S. atrogularis^ appa- 
rently by an oversight. Dr. Jerdon appears to have been the first writer 
to change the designation to atronuchalis, very properly attaching Mr. 
BlytVs name to this alteration. 
The Burmese Lapwing is very abundant throughout the whole of 
Burmah and Karenuee. 
It extends northwards as far as Bhamo in Independent Burmah, to the 
east as far as Cochin China and southwards down to Singapore. 
This Lapwing is very well known to Europeans, owing to the per- 
sistent manner in which it cries " Did he do it when disturbed. It is 
generally found in couples, occasionally in small flocks of four or six. It 
is not partial to watery localities, being more frequently met with in waste 
land and dry fields. There are few places, however, wet or dry, from 
which it is absent. I have frequently found the eggs in April and May ; 
usually four in number, they are deposited on the bare ground in paddy- 
