552 GREY PLOVER. 



more abundant on the east than on the west coast, while rare in the 

 Outer Hebrides and Orkneys. 



The Grey Plover has only once been obtained in Iceland, and 

 there is no proof of its breeding on the fells of Scandinavia. In 

 1875 Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebohm took its eggs and young 

 on the tundras of the Petchora ; Mr. Trevor-Battye, and afterwards 

 the Pearson Expedition, found it nesting on Kolguev ; Mr. Popham 

 was similarly successful on the Yenesei ; further east Middendorff 

 had already obtained its eggs on the Taimyr Peninsula in lat. 74° 

 and on the Boganida in 71*^ N. ; and its summer-range extends to 

 Kamchatka. In winter this species visits the greater part of Asia, 

 Australia, Madagascar, and both sides of Africa, while it occurs on 

 passage in the Canaries and along the whole coast-line of Europe. 

 A limited number cross the Continent by way of the valleys of the 

 Rhine and the Rhone (in fact the bird owes the specific name 

 helvetica to the earliest described specimens having been procured 

 by Reaumur in Switzerland), while another route followed is along 

 the Volga and Kama rivers. Though somewhat rare in Greenland, 

 it is distributed over the Barren grounds of Arctic America in 

 summer, and reaches Guatemala in winter. 



The nest is a slight hollow in the moor ; the eggs from ten 

 identified clutches obtained on the Petchora between June 22nd 

 and July 12th are described by Seebohm as 4 in number, inter- 

 mediate in ground-colour between typical specimens of those of 

 the Golden Plover and the Lapwing, the blotching being similar : 

 measurements i"9 by 1*4 in. The male takes part in incubation. 

 The alarm-note is a plaintive kop, sometimes combined with a 

 double klee-eep ; while during the time that the bird is on our coasts 

 its usual call may be syllabled by tl-e-ih, in a much sharper key than 

 that of the Golden Plover. The food consists of worms, marine 

 insects and their larvse, small molluscs and sea-weed. 



The adult male in breeding-plumage has the fore-crown white ; 

 upper parts mottled and barred with brownish-black and white, 

 the latter predominating in the tail-feathers ; lores, cheeks, throat, 

 neck and breast black ; vent and under tail-coverts white ; axillaries 

 black; bill, legs and feet blackish. Length 11-5 in. ; wing 775 in. 

 In the female the black is less pronounced. After the autumn 

 moult the under parts are chiefly white, and the upper plumage has 

 a more ashy appearance, especially in the female. The young are 

 thickly streaked with brownish-grey about the head and neck, and 

 the upper parts exhibit some yellow spots up to the end of December; 

 the axillaries are dark brown, not black 



