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PLUVIALIS. PLOVER. 



It having been considered necessary to break up the 

 Linneean genus Charadrius, which, constituted as it was, 

 would now contain a vast number of species, differing in 

 many respects from each other, almost every succeeding 

 author who has treated of the group has proposed an arrange- 

 ment of his own. To explain all the variations thus intro- 

 duced, would be to enter into details probably not intelligible 

 to every reader. I shall therefore confine myself to a few 

 remarks. If we take our common Golden Plover, Chara- 

 drius Pluvialis of Linnaeus, as typical, and place around it 

 the species which are most nearly allied, we should first 

 select Charadrius marmoratus of Wagler, and, with little less 

 hesitation, Tringa helvetica of Linnaeus, which, although 

 having a stouter bill, and a mockery of a hind toe, is ex- 

 tremely similar. These birds have the bill nearly as long as 

 the head, the wings acuminate, the tail short and nearly 

 even, the plumage mottled, and the feet rather long. Chara- 

 drius Morinellus, which comes very near to them, differs in 

 having the inner secondaries more elongated, and the plumage 

 coloured in masses, bands, and streaks. Charadrius Hiati- 

 cula, semipalmatus, melodus, Cantianus, minor, and Wilsonii, 

 form a group very intimately allied in form and colouring, 

 smaller than the Golden Plover, with shorter neck and legs, 

 and longer and more rounded tail. One has the bill slender 

 and but half the length of the head, in another it is very 

 stout, and as long as the head ; the tail in one is short, in 

 another long, and in a third intermediate. If we take such 

 characters as distinctive of genera, we shall scarcely find 

 three species agreeing together. Then come birds similar in 

 form to a great extent, but yet differing, some having mem- 

 branous wattles at the base of the bill, one with a bill as 



