STONE THICK-KNEE. 79 



feathers mottled with brown and pale reddish-yellow, with 

 more or less white toward the end, and the tips black, unless 

 on the two middle feathers. The loral space, and a band 

 below the eye, white ; below this band is another of brownish- 

 red, finely streaked with dusky ; the throat white, the fore 

 part and sides of the neck light reddish-yellow, streaked with 

 dusky, as are the sides and part of the breast ; the rest of 

 the lower parts white, with slender streaks ; the feathers 

 under the tail yellowish-white. 



Length to end of tail 11 j ; extent of wings 29 ; wing 

 from flexure 9-j-f; tail 3f ; bill along the ridge ljV, along 

 the edge of lower mandible l\% ■ Da re part of tibia 1 ; tarsus 

 3^; inner toe i-jf, its claw -fa; middle toe 1-^, its claw -j^; 

 outer toe 1, its claw ^-. 



Female. — The female is similar to the male. 



Habits. — The Stone Thick -knee, which has an extended 

 geographical distribution, having been found in various parts 

 of Africa, Asia, and the southern countries of Europe, where 

 it appears to be in part stationary, visits the middle and 

 western districts of the latter continent annually, and appears 

 in England about the beginning of April, sometimes later, 

 but occasionally much earlier. In Britain it does not spread 

 to so great an extent as might be expected from its wide 

 range, but is principally confined to the southern and eastern 

 counties of England, and is said to be especially abundant 

 in Norfolk, on which account one of its most popular names 

 is that of Norfolk Plover. To the northward it has not 

 been observed beyond Yorkshire, and I am not aware of its 

 having been met with in any part of Scotland even as a 

 straggler, although both the Bustards have been seen there. 

 It is not quite a stranger to Ireland, however, as is shewn by 

 Mr. Thompson, in his very interesting work on the Birds of 

 that country. Its mode of life resembles that of the birds 

 just named, as well as of the larger Plovers, insomuch that 

 it has by some been considered a Bustard, and by others a 

 Plover. It frequents waste lands, commons, rabbit-warrens, 

 heaths, and large cultivated fields, keeping at first in small 



