The Green-Plover.] OFORKNEY. 89 



surely come from some summer-haunt at a distance from us, 

 and retire thither in the spring. Plovers begin to flock in 

 July or August, (according as the season has been in spring 

 that they could hatch early), and then possess the barest 

 gravelly moors in thousands ; continue thus till the winter 

 storms drive them down to the shores of the sea, where, as 

 the rest of the waders, they live on insects and sea-worms. 



Plovers are killed in great numbers in winter, on wing, 

 while in the whirl, and one covers the other. They are very 

 good eating, the best of the genus that frequent these isles, or 

 indeed of the waders which are found in Orkney. 



The variety with a black belly, mentioned in the British 

 Zoology, is here called the male, but with what truth I can- 

 not at present determine*. 



Species 2. — The Sea-Lark. 



Wil. Orn. 310. Raii Syn. Av. 112. Charadrius Hiaticula, Lin. Sys. 253. 

 Brit. Zool. 383. Charadrius, the Sea- Lark, Sib. Scot. 19. Ore. Sand-lark, 

 Sandy-Laverock. 



The Sand-lark is very common, especially in winter, when 



* Since writing the above, I have minutely examined great numbers of plovers. 

 In spring when the colours are most vivid, the cock's belly is a shining black, the 

 hen's spotted black and dusky. The young do not acquire this inark'till the se- 

 cond year. 



M 



