Glareola lactea, Tem.
843. :- Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 632; Butler, Deccan; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 425 ; Barnes, Sind, Stray Feathers, Vol. X, p. 166 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 223.
THE SMALL SWALLOW PLOVER.
Length, 6.5 ; expanse, 16.5 ; wing, 5.75; tail, 2 ; tarsus, 0.8 ; bill from gape, 0.56.
Bill black, gape red; irides deep brown ; legs dusky-green.
Upper plumage pale brownish-isabella color ; upper tail-coverts white ; tail white, tipped with dark-brown for about one inch on the centre feathers, diminishing to about one-quarter of an inch on the outer ones; primaries brown, the first four conspicuously white shafted; the inner web white on the last four or five; secondaries all white, tipped with brown ; winglet dark-brown ; chin, throat, and breast, pale isabella color; belly and under tail-coverts white; axillaries and lower wing-coverts deep brown ; feathered orbits white.
The Small Swallow Plover has been recorded from Sholapur by Mr. Davidson, who procured it on the banks of the Bhima. It is not uncommon on the Indus, where I found a colony breeding in April.
The eggs are deposited in slight depressions on sand banks; they are usually four in number, are broadish oval in shape, greenish-white or fawn in color, spotted, streaked and blotched with various shades of olive and reddish-brown, with pale underlying clouds of dull purple. They measure 1.05 inches in length by 0.82 in breadth.
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