CHAPTER V. 



Two Kinds of Plover. 



/^N those portions of the coast of South Africa where 

 ^^^ the sea does not beat directly upon the cHffs, 

 there is generally a more or less sheltered bay, the 

 shore of which is composed of very light-coloured 

 sand, almost amounting to white. This light sand 

 occurs in False Bay, Mossel Bay, the neighbourhood 

 of Port Elizabeth, and doubtless in many other bays 

 around the coast. In False Bay especially, when the 

 sea happens to be in a good humour and the waves 

 are mere ripples, the water assumes a delicate trans- 

 parent green tint, owing probably to the fact that the 

 colour received from the blue sky is influenced by that 

 thrown up from the light sand beneath, the two hues 

 blending their tones in the water. Perhaps no wider 

 contrast could be found in the way of shore than that 

 between the coast of Tenerife and of South Africa, the 

 former with its almost unnatural combination of deep 

 blue water and black sand, the latter with its white 

 sand and the faint contrast of transparent green water. 

 It stands to reason, then, that any birds which make 

 their home on this white shore must themselves be of 

 a very light colour ; the only ones, so far as I know, 

 that can claim protection from such a shore, being the 

 White Sand- Plovers, which, seen in certain lights are 

 but little darker than the sand itself 



