946 
.^GI A LITIS MONGOLICA. 
passing tliexn. They run about and feed apart, covering about a quarter of an acre perhaps, and when disturbed 
all get up together and fly leisurely further on. In September they commence to appear at Colombo, and 
are common in November and December, and may then be shot quite stained, like the Pipits, with the cabook- 
dust of the Galle face. The majority of those which arrive first are young birds ; and more females are 
obtained than the other sex. When they first come to the island they are tamer than they are in the middle 
of the season, or in the spring before migrating, when they become somewhat shy and restless. The short 
bill of this species, as well as its smaller size, always serve to distinguish it, at a distance even, from its con- 
gener Ai. geoffroyi. Its note is a sharp plaintive whistle; and I have heard a trilling sound uttered by two 
birds associating together. Its food consists of sand-flies, small worms, minute crustaceans, and insects, the 
latter of which it entirely feeds on in grassy places, which, I think, are frequented more by it than by any other 
Sand- Plover in Ceylon. Both this and the last species are, comparatively speaking, inactive birds, for they 
do not run hither and thither, taking stretches of 10 or 15 yards, with an almost invisible movement of the 
legs, as one sees in the case of the Kentish and Binged Plovers ; but, on the contrary, they move rather slowly 
and take short runs. When winged, however, and chased they run with great speed ; and Middendorff 
says that they swim and dive well when wounded. 
Nidification . — As mentioned above. Dr. Adams found this species breeding in Ladakh, the mountainous 
portion of Thibet bounding Cashmir on the east. Here he found the young at the Chimouraree Lake, 
but he was too late to obtain eggs. Mr. Hume says that it breeds in May and June about this and 
other Thibetan, lakes. 
