Leg colour of Kentish Plovers 
Charadrius alexandrinus in Bahrain 
Erik Hirschfeld & Tadeusz Stazvarczyk 
Cramp & Simmons (1983) state that leg colour of the Kentish Plover 
Charadrius alexandrinus can be 'dull grey to almost black, rarely, pale 
yellowish-brown'. During August to October 1992, whilst we were 
ringing waders as part of 5\e Bahrain Wader Study Project, we caught 
267 Kentish Plovers. It became dear that very few of these had black or 
very dark legs so we recorded the colour of the tibia, tarsus and foot (i.e. 
upper side of foot) of 251 individuals. 
The majority, 141 birds, showed dark-grey tibia, 82 had grey tibia, 21 had 
black tibia and five showed pale grey, while olive and olive-grey were 
rarest, with only one bird showing either. The most frequent tarsus 
