208 
Stilt Plover. An adult female of this rarity was shot at 
Ingham, near Stalham, on the 20th of May. The brown tint of 
the back, as compared with the dark green of the wings and 
the dusky feathers of the occiput, indicated the sex, and on dis- 
section I found the ovary contained four eggs varying in size from 
a pea to a hemp-seed, and the rest not larger than small millet. 
The stomach was filled with minute fragments of Coleopterous 
water insects, with some largish pebbles and gritty matter. Three 
days-after death the legs and feet were reddish orange — a sort of 
orange and vermilion blended. The following were the principal 
measurements : — 
Length from tip of bill to end of tail ... 
Bill, along the upper mandible - 
Wing, from carpal joint to end of first quill, the longest 
Tarsus -------- 
Tibia, bare portion 
Middle toe and nail 
14 inches. 
21 
9s 
1 8 
>) 
n 
>> 
Irides rich red, almost vermilion. The tongue is short for the 
length of the bill, and fits, as it were, into a groove, being just one 
inch and three-eighths short of the tip of the beak. Two months 
later a second stilt plover was killed at Ditchingham, near Bungay, 
towards the end of July. The bird was shot by a labouring man 
as it was feeding in a broad but shallow piece of water on 
Outney common, known as the “old river.” It was quite alone 
and as from its plumage and measurements, so far as I could 
ascertain them after the bird was mounted it is no doubt a male, 
it may possibly be the mate of the female previously shot at 
Ingham. The sex was not ascertained by dissection. 
Bill along the upper mandible ... 
Carpal joint to end of first quill, the longest - 
Tarsus ------- 
Bare part of Tibia 
Middle toe and Claw 
2§ inches, 
ql 
•■'8 » 
fig >> 
3b >> 
If „ 
Being badly stuffed in the first instance, the total length of this 
bird could not be ascertained with any certainty. In skins of 
this species collected in Egypt by Mr. J. II. Gurney, junr. three 
males exceed three females in the length of the tarsi by about 
one-third of an inch. I have also measured the tarsus of a young 
female from Mr. Gurney’s collection, with the following result : — 
