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Show 98 MR. H. E. DRESSER ON HYPOLAIS CALIGATA, ETC. [Feb. 16, dromias morinellus, but is darker and rather more green in tinge ground-colour than the general run of those eggs, besides being much less spotted and more oval in shape. It is, as will be seen, warm buff, with the faintest greenish tinge, and sparingly spotted with black, the markings being comparatively small and not large blotches as in those of E. morinellus. In size it measures 1*25 by 1*075 inch, and is oval in shape, very slightly tapering towards one end. It is especially interesting to obtain not only the egg of this species but the bird itself from the locality whence it was originally described. It will be recollected that in 'The Ibis' for 1870, p.201, Mr. Harting gave a full account of this species and of its close ally Charadrius veredus, Gould; and in 1872 (Ibis, 1872, p. 144) Dr. Otto Finsch published some notes on these two species, in which he sought to show that the bird referred to by Mr. Harting under the name of Eudromias asiaticus should stand as C. damarensis, and that his E. veredus is the true C. asiaticus of Pallas. These specimens, however, which I now exhibit, tend to prove that Mr. Harting was quite right in his identification of Pallas's C. asiaticus; but all the distinctive characters of the two species as given by him (Ibis, 1870, p. 212) do not always hold good. For instance he states that all the primaries of C. asiaticus have the shafts mesially white. This is certainly the case in some specimens I possess, and also in the female obtained from the Kirghis steppes ; but the male has the shaft of the first primary only white, almost all the rest being as dark as the web of the feather. The best distinctive character besides measurements is the colour of the axillaries, which in C. asiaticus are invariably white, and in C. veredus dark smoke-grey. I cannot but think that there is some mistake in the colour of the tarsus of C. asiaticus as given by Mr. Harting, who, both in his description and in the plate, gives it as being greenish ochreous. Now Pallas expressly states that the colour of the tarsus is yellowish ; and in his plate (Zoogr. Ross.-As. ii. pl. 58) he figures the bird with the legs ochreous yellow. I do not know where Mr. Harting obtained the particulars he gives as to the colour of the tarsus being greenish ; but it is possible that the description may have been taken from a young bird, and that the young have the tarsus darker than the old birds ; or else, as in some other waders, the colour of the tarsus may vary at different seasons of the year. I observe that Mr. Harting follows Keyserling and Blasius in referring both O. asiaticus and C. veredus to the genus Eudromias ; but I have grave doubts as to this being correct. In Eudromias (the type of which is E. morinellus) the female is more richly coloured than the male, whereas in both the above species the female lacks the rich nuptial dress of the male and is not unlike its mate in winter dress. Professor Newton has pointed out to me that the sternum oiE. morinellus differs greatly from that of true Charadrius; and it will be interesting to ascertain, so soon as a skeleton of either C. veredus or C. asiaticus can be procured, whether these species assimilate to Eudromias or to true Charadrius in that respect. Meanwhile I think it advisable to refer them to the latter group. |