THE CRESTLESS LAPWINGS. 
175 
with many other stuffed birds, which Impeded the vie^^ it was 
erroneously recorded as a Cream-co oured Courser by Mr. F. S. 
Mitchell. It afterwards came into the possession of Mr. \V. H. 
Doeg, when it was correctly identified, and was exhibited by 
Mr. Seebohm at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London 
on November 20th, 1888. Its pedigree appears to be perfectly 
satisfactory.” 
Range outside tie British Islands.— The principal home of this 
species is in South-eastern Russia, in the steppes of the Don, 
the Volga, and the Caucasus, as well as the Crimea. The late 
Professor Bogdanoff gives its range as the steppes of Tcher- 
nozdm, from 51 to 53 ° N. lat., and its ffn range as ex- 
tending to the Aralo-Caspian region and Russian Songaria, 
whence it wanders in winter to North-western and Western 
India, and to Arabia and North-eastern Afri^. It has oc- 
curred on more than one occasion in Western Europe, haying 
been killed at least three times in Italy, as well as near Nice. 
Mr. Howard Saunders saw one in the Cadiz Market, in Feb- 
ruary, 1868, and the late Professor Taczanowsky identified two 
adults near Lublin in the autumn of 1842. 
Hahits. ^Very little has been recorded about the habits of this 
species. Mr. Hume gives the following note of his observations 
in Sind : “ This Lapwing was often met with, chiefly m waste 
places in the immediate neighbourhood of cultivation. As a 
rule it is an upland bird; you may see it occasionally near 
iheels, but is most common in the neighbourhood of cultivation 
on waste and dry uplands. It keeps together in flocks of from 
twenty to one hundred, and until shot at once or twice is 
fearless and tame.” Colonel E. A. Butler also gives a short 
note ; “The Black-sided Lapwing is very common during the 
cold weather in the neighbourhood of Deesa (farther south it is 
not so plentiful), congregating in flocks, varying in numbers 
from four or five to fifty or sixty. Like M, cantianus and 
curonicus, it frequents open sandy and grass maidans and bare 
cultivated or uncultivated ground.” 
Kest. Apparently no details are known of the nidification 
of this species. 
jggg Pour in number, very similar to those of the Lapwing, 
