The Occurrence of the Sociable Plover in IrelandAuthor(s): Edward WilliamsSource: The Irish Naturalist, Vol. 8, No. 11 (Nov., 1899), pp. 233-234Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25521672 .

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November, I899.] 233

THE OCCURRENCE OF THE SOCIABLE PLOVER IN IRELAND.

BY EDWARD WILLIAMS.

[Plate Io.]

ON the 3rd of August, in the present year, I received a bird

from Robinstown, near Navan, Co. Meath, which puzzled me

very much. At first I thought it was a variety of the common

Green Plover, but on closer examination I found the legs

were much longer. Upon looking over the collection of skins of the Charadriide

in the Dublin Museum, I was able to identify the bird as the

Gregarious Plover (Charadrius gregarius, Pall.), or as Mr.

Howard Saunders calls it, in the last edition of his

"Manual of British Birds," the Sociable Plover ( Vanellus

gregarius).

As will be seen further on, in the extract fromn that valuable

work, its claims to rank as a British bird were, to say the

least, resting on a very slender basis, but the occurrence in

Ireland of a second example firmly establishes its right to a

place in the British list, and adds a new bird to our Irish

fauna. Upon communicating with the owner as to its capture, he

informed me that on the ist August one of his men whilst

grubbingturnipsnoticedthis fancy bird, as he called it, running about the field, and went in for his master, who came out and

shot the specimen. As far as I can make out by comparison, the bird is a female,

and I think in the second year's plumage. The following is

a full description:

Top of head very dark brown dappled with light buff; a

broad light-coloured band extends right over the eye from the

bill to the back of the head. Back ash-grey with a number of

new feathers of a dark brown tint, with a rufous edge coming

out all over, which I take to be the winter plumage. Lower

part of breast blackish, with a band of chestnut not very

clearly defined extending right across behind the legs. Vent

and lower tail coverts white; upper tail coverts snow white.

Tail consisting of twelve feathers, two outer ones white, the rest A

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234 The Irish Naturalist. [November,

white with a band of black near the end, widest in the middle

ones and narrowing as it approaches the sides of the tail.

Primaries black, secondaries pure white, tertiaries and wing

coverts ash grey with dark feathers coming out same as back.

I am indebted to my friend, Dr. C. J. Patten, for the following

very accurate measurements of the Sociable Plover compared

with our Lapwing

Sociable Plover. Lapwing. 'Tibio-tarsus, 6-5 cm. fTibio-tarsus, 4'5 cm.

Leg. Tarso-metatarsus, 6'9 cm. Legj Tarso-metatarsus, 4-5 cm.

Hallux _ 6 mm. Hallux = 8 mm.

Length of bill = 2'9 cm. Length of bill =2 cm.

The following notes are extracted from Mr. Howard

Saunders' " Manual" (pp. 537-8.) " In the autumn of the year I86o, or thereabouts, an immature example

of this south-eastern species was shot from among a flock of Lapwings

near St. Michael-on-Wye, in Lancashire, and having been placed in a

case with many other stuffed birds which impeded the view, it was first

erroneously recorded as a Cream-coloured Courser. " It afterwards came into the possession of Mr. W. H. Doeg, when it

was correctly identified, and was exhibited by the late Mr. Sebohm at a

mneeting of the Zoological Society of London on Nov. 2 ISt, I888. It has

not yet been observed in Heligoland or the northern part of western

Europe, but as long ago as March, 1838, an adult was shot near Rome,

where a young female was obtained in Nov., 1872, while a third example

was killed near Sienna. On the Riviera an adult male was taken near

Nice in April, I883. "The Sociable Plover inhabits the steppes of the Crimea, and of the

district between the Doln and the Volga, and the Caucasus, as well as the

Aralo-Caspian area and Turkestan. In September it crosses the Pamirs

to the dry uplands of Sinde and the sandy plains of India, and wanders

southward to Ceylon in the cold season, when it also visits Arabia,

Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia. The food consists of spiders, grass

hoppers, beetles, and their larvae.

"Von Hugelin, who had opportunities of observing this bird in

Kordofan and Senaar, says that it frequented sandy localities and ground

that had been burnt; it was as a rule quite silent, but every Inow and then

he heard it utter a short whistle."

Dame-street, Dublin.

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