GREY PLOVER 375 



Genus SQUATAROLA, Leach. 



GEEY PLOVEE. 



Squatarola helvetica (Linnaeus). S.N., i., p. 250 



(1766). 



Grey Sandpiper, Boys, 1792. 



This species is another autumn and winter visitor, 

 more abundant than the former, and is confined to the 

 sea-coast and estuaries of Kent, associating as it does 

 with most of our waders, so very different in its habits 

 to those of the Golden Plover. During the winter it 

 may be seen in larger or smaller numbers on nearly all 

 the extensive mud -fiats and beaches along the coast and 

 rivers in the county, feeding in and enjoying the company 

 of Ping Plovers, Dunlin, Godwits, Sandpipers, Whim- 

 brels. Curlew and Gulls. It arrives on the coast about 

 October and November, and remains in greater or smaller 

 numbers until March or April, and occasionally later. 



The Kev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, writing in 1844, states 

 that it was "common in Eomney Marsh." 



Mr. W. H. Power says : " I have only once observed 

 these birds at Eainham. On October 8, 1865, a flock of 

 about fifteen or twenty settled on the mud in the creek ; 

 a friend who was with me succeeded in stalking them 

 and shot two. They had nearly completed their autumnal 

 moult." 



Mr. F. D. Power, writing in 1868, says: "I first 

 observed the Grey Plover on September 18, 1868, three 

 together. They are never very numerous on the Eain- 

 ham marshes." It finds its way along the mud-flats high 

 up the Medway and the Thames. 



