214 GREY PLOVER. 



portions of the body which are greyish-white in winter become 

 black in spring, partly from new feathers, and partly from a change 

 of colour in those that remain. 



This bird from the earliest times has been considered very 

 delicate in flavour, and was formerly more esteemed than the 

 Woodcock. It is still sold for the table in considerable numbers. 

 In the L'Estrange " Household Book" (1520) the price is noticed 

 as two-pence each. 



As a shepherd's barometer too, the Golden Plover is highly 

 esteemed. When the birds are restless, wheeling about rapidly, 

 now high, now low, uttering their wild whistUng notes so sweet and 

 plaintive, approaching bad weather is indicated, and the warning is 

 never unheeded. Lastly, they share with the Lapwing the persistent 

 notice of the presence of a strange object, whether from curiosity 

 or from fear, which, in the days of religious persecution, often 

 betrayed the fugitive to his pursuers. In Scotland they are 

 abundant, and a Scotch poet says : — 



Thou, hovering o'er the panting fugitive 

 Through dreary moss and moor hast screaming led 

 The keen pursuer's eye ; oft hast tliou hung 

 Like a death flag above the assembled throng, 

 Whose lips hymned praise. 



Grahame— ^irc?« of Scotland. 



Genus— SQUATAROLA. 



SQUATAROLA HELVETICA— Grey Plover. 



The small additional toe, places the Grey Plover in a different 

 class to the Golden Plover. It is nevertheless closely aUied to it, 

 in its curious change of plumage, its general appearance, and its 

 excellence on the table ; it is, however, a larger bird, and more rare. 

 Its winter migrations into Herefordshire seem to have occurred 

 more frequently of late years. Two Grey Plovers were killed on 

 the Lugg meadows, in 1878, and brought to the Free Library; 

 three — one from Bacton, and two from Old Castle were also brought 



