742 
Birds of Celebes: Charadriidae. 
from V. Scliierbraucl (Java) in the Dresden Museum, answering pretty well to Mr. 
Harting’s description above, might he adult birds; they do not, however, display 
anything of the dushy patches on the sides of the breast which Mr. Harting supposes 
the adult to possess in winter. One specimen from Talaut has broad cinnamon edgings 
to the feathers of the upper surface (young?), a second is nearly uniform (adult?). 
Chick, eggs, nest. Undescribed. The species has, however, been observed breeding in Mongolia 
by David (II) and Prjevalsky (d 7). 
Distribution. South-west Siberia — Samarkand (fide Seebohra a 5); Mongolia (David II, 
Prjevalsky d T]] China (Swinlioe d3, Styan a 0, etc.); Cambodia (Conrad a o)] 
Andamans (Ball d 4]', Java (Horsfield 3, v. Schierbrand); Philippines — Palawan 
(Platen 7, 8); Talaut Islands — Karkellang (Nat. Coll, in Dresd. Mus.); Celebes 
— Gorontalo Distr. (Eiedel 6'), Macassar (Wallace all, d I, d 2, el)] Ternate, 
Amboina, New Guinea, Kei, Aru (Salvad. 5); N. and E. A\istraHa (Eamsay d 8). 
This rare Plover has been met Math, no doubt as a winter visitor or bird 
of passage, only by Wallace and Riedel in Celebes. A specimen from Riedel 
in the Brunswick Museum, one (? from Wallace) in the same collection recorded 
by W. Blasiiis (6), four in the British Museum and one in the Dresden Museum 
are the only examples from the island of which Ave can find notice. Two in 
winter plumage ■were obtained in Talaut in the autumn, 1890, by our native hunters. 
In Mongolia David found it plentiful: “It establishes its breeding-quarters on 
high plateaus, among stony plains, on the shores of the bitter lakes and of the 
rare water-courses ■with which the country is supplied. It runs on the ground 
with extreme lightness and astonishing rapidity, and. feeds on small insects, 
principally Coleoptera of the genera Asida, Gonocephalus and Tentyria, which 
abound in summer in the sandy regions”. Prjevalsky met ■with it on the salt 
plains of S. E. Mongolia, sometimes at great distances from the water. It was 
very shy, even ■when it had young. 
Abbe David further observes that it passes through China as a bird of 
passage, residing there only accidentally; Mr. Styan (a 6) on the Lo'wer Yangtse 
and Mr. De La Touche ( 11 ) in the South China (Foochow) likewise remarked 
that it passes on in migration. In all probability the birds found in the East 
Indies and Australia are members of this southern wandering from Mongolia 
and other suitable breeding areas in the neighbouring territories. 
A. vereda most closely resembles A. asiatica (Pall.), from which it may, 
however, readily be distinguished by its greater size (wing 20 — 25 mm longer), 
its drab-brown axillaries (white in asiatica), the dusky shafts of the remiges, 
except the first two (all being white in asiatica), — characters pointed out 
among other marks of distinction by Mr. Harting (d I). Compared with the 
other Plovers of the genus Aeyialitis in Celebes it may at once be distin- 
guished from A. geoffroyi and mongola by its grey-brown rrnder-wing, by its pale 
brownish fiesh-coloured legs, as against slaty-grey or blackish in those species, 
by its middle toe without the claw being less than half the length of the tarsus, 
and by its much more slender bill. A. peroni, curonica and jerdoni do not come 
into question, on account of their small size and black markings about the head. 
