Lobipluvia malabarica, Bodd.
856. :- Sarciophorus bilobus, Gm. :- Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 649 ; Butler, Guzerat; Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 14; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 427 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 230 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 133.
THE YELLOW-WATTLED LAPWING.
Length, 11.75 ; expanse, 27; wing, 8.25 ; tail, 3.25 ; tarsus, 2.5 ; bill at front, 1.
Bill yellow, black at tip; lappet pale-yellow ; irides pale-yellow ; legs yellow.
Head and nape black ; rest of the upper plumage, including wing-coverts and tertiaries, chin, throat, and upper part of breast, pale ashy-brown; a white streak from behind the eye bordering the black head all round; winglet and primaries black; secondaries white at their base, brownish-black for the greater part of their Length, the white increasing in extent towards the last, and with the tips of the greater wing-coverts forming a not very conspicuous white wing-band; upper tail-coverts white; tail white with a broad blackish subterminal band, evanescent on the outer feathers; beneath, from the breast, pure white.
The Yellow-wattled Lapwing is a more or less common permanent resident throughout our limits. It affects dry uplands and sandy plains, and does not evince that partiality for damp localities shown by the other members of this group. The eggs, four in number, are deposited in a depression scratched in the bare ground, without any attempt at concealment. They are similar in shape to those of L. indicus, but are considerably smaller, averaging 1.45 in length by 1.07 in width. The ground color varies from buffy to olive-green, and they are thickly blotched, spotted and streaked with pale olive-brown and dingy inky-purple.
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