GOLDEN PLOVER. 



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the neck, the back, wing-coverts, tertials, rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts, greyish-black, the edges of all the feathers 

 varied with triangular-shaped spots of gamboge-yellow ; 

 wing-primaries almost black ; tail-feathers obliquely barred 

 with shades of greyish-white and brownish-black ; the lore, 

 chin, sides of the neck, throat, breast, and all the under 

 surface of the body as far as the vent, jet black, bounded 

 on the sides with a band of white below the wing ; axillary 

 plume elongated, and pure white ; under tail-coverts white. 



In winter the chin is white ; front of the neck and the 

 breast, white, tinged with dusky, and spotted with dull 

 yellow ; the upper surface of the body nearly as in summer ; 

 before and after the breeding-season the adult birds may be 

 seen for a time with the breast of a mixed plumage of black 

 and white. 



The whole length of an adult bird is rather more than 

 eleven inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the 

 wing, seven inches and three-quarters. 



The plumage of adult birds of both sexes is nearly alike 

 at the same season of the year ; but young birds of the 

 year during their first autumn have the breast much darker 

 in colour than the same part of the old birds in winter, 

 and may be distinguished throughout their first winter from 

 parent birds by the greater proportion of dusky grey on the 

 breast and belly. 



The outline below represents the breast-bone of the 

 Golden Plover. 



