236 



AVES. 



The Restricted Plovers (Charadriits,) — 

 Have the beak swoln only above, and two-thirds of its length occupied by the nasal groove on each 

 side, which renders it weaker. They live in numerous flocks, frequent low and humid places, and 

 stamp the ground to cause the worms on which they feed to rise. 



Those of France are merely birds of passage, which are met with in autumn and spring ; near the sea-coast some 

 of them remain till the beginning of winter. [They all breed, however, within the British isles, and at least some 

 of them in France also.] Their flesh is excellent. They form, with numerous exotic species, a tribe with reticu- 

 lated tarsi, of which the most remarkable are 



The Golden Plover (C/i. pluvialis, Lin.).— Blackish, speckled with yellow at the tips of the feathers ; the belly 

 black [in summer, in winter white. It breeds on upland moors. There are others very closely allied, but smaller, 

 in India, Australia, and North America]. 



The Dottrel Plover (Ch. morinellus, Lin.). — Grey or blackish, the feathers edged with whitish fulvous; a white 

 streak over the eye, the breast and upper part of the belly bright rufous, and the lower part of the belly white. 

 [It breeds on the very summits of mountains uncovered by snow ; flies in large scattered flocks, which are not 

 shy; and is partial to chalky districts : its feathers are much esteemed by anglers.] 



The Ring Plover (Ch. hiaticula, Lin.).- Greyish brown above, white beneath, with a black [or in winter a brown] 

 collar on the lower part of the neck, very broad anteriorly ; the head marked with black and white, and the beak 

 yellow tipped with black. Two or three races or different species inhabit these parts, varying in size and the 

 distribution of the colours of the head. [Those of Britain are, first, the common Ring Plover, with plumage as 

 above described, and orange-coloured legs, which is everywhere very abundant on the sea-coast, breeding both 

 there and on heaths a little inland ; the Kentish Plover (Ch. cantianus), with longer and black legs, and a rufous 

 occiput, an inhabitant of shingle-beaches, and less deeply coloured ; and the Little Plover (C. minor), which is a 

 diminutive of the first, and of excessively rare occurrence so far north.] There are numerous other foreign spe- 

 cies, with similar general distribution of colours. 



Various exotic Plovers have scutellated tarsi, and form a small division (the Pluvianus, Vieillot), of which the 

 greater number of species possess spurs to the wings, and fleshy wattles to the head ; some of them have both 

 these characters. 



The Lapwings (Vanellus, Bechst. ; Trinya, Lin.) — 

 Have the same beak as the Plovers, and are only distinguished by the presence of a back-toe, which 

 however is so small that it does not reach the ground. 



In the first tribe of them (the Squatarola, Cuv.), this back-toe is scarcely perceptible. The bill is 

 swoln underneatb, and the nasal groove as short as in the Thick-knee. The feet are reticulated, and 

 the tail of the European species is rayed black and white. It associates with the Plovers. 



The Grey Lapwing, or Stone Plover (Trinya squatarola, Auct.)— [This bird differs only from the Golden Plover 

 in the stoutness of its bill, and in possessing the small back toe. Its seasonal changes are the same, having the 

 under-parts black in summer and white in winter; the feathers above are similarly mottled, only with whitish 

 instead of yellow, except in the young, which is even speckled with yellow. From the true Lapwings and the 

 Pluviani, this bird and the restricted Plovers differ in their pointed wings and reticulated tarsi ; the latter having 

 scutellated tarsi, broad and rounded wings, and a different system of coloration. Its habits are precisely those of 

 the Golden Plover, and it breeds on some of the northern British moors.] 



The Restricted Lapwings (Vanellus, Cuv.) — 



Have the hind-toe rather more developed, the tarsi scutellated, at least in part, and the nasal fossa pro- 

 longed over two-thirds of the beak. They procure worms in the same manner as the Plovers, [and are 

 peculiar to the eastern hemisphere]. 



That common in Europe, the Crested Lapwing (T. vanellus, Lin.), is a handsome species the size of a Pigeon, of 

 a richly bronzed black above, with a long and slender occipital crest. [Throat black in summer and white in 

 winter, at which latter season the colours are comparatively dull.] It arrives in spring, lives and propagates in 

 the meadows, and departs in autumn. The eggs are considered a great delicacy. 



There are some species of this genus in hot climates, the wings of which are armed with one or two spurs, and 

 others which have fleshy wattles at the base of the beak. They are very noisy birds, screaming at every sound 

 they hear, and defend themselves with courage against birds of prey. Live also in the meadows. [A second 

 European species of Lapwing, from the south-eastern countries, is the V. gregarius, Pallas, or V. keptuscka, Tern.] 



The Oyster-catchers (Hamatopus, Lin.) — 

 Have the beak rather longer than in the Plovers and Lapwings, straight, pointed, and compressed into 

 a wedge ; strong enough to enable them to force open the bivalve shells of the mollusks on which 

 they feed. They also seek for worms upon the ground. The nasal groove, which is very deep, 

 occupies half the length of the bill, and the nostrils are pierced in the middle like a small fissure. 

 Their legs are of mean length, the tarsi reticulated, and the feet divided only into three toes. 



