PLOVER 731 



ance with modern observation, for in rainy weather Plovers are 

 Avilder and harder to approach than in fine. Others have thought 

 it is from the spotted (as though with rain-drops) upper phimage of 

 two of the commonest species of Plovers, to which the name espe- 

 cially belongs — the Charadrius pluvialis of LinniBus, or Golden 



Chabadrius (head and foot). Squatarola (bill and hind toe). 



(After Swainson.) 



Plover, and the Squatarola helvetica of recent ornithologists, or Grey 

 Plover. Both these birds are very similar in general appearance, 

 but the latter is the larger and has an aborted hind-toe on each 

 foot,^ while its axillary feathers, which in the Golden Plover are 

 pure white, are black, and this difterence often affords a readj^ 

 means of distinguishing the two species when on the wing, even at 

 a considerable distance. The Grey Plover is a bird of almost 

 circumpolar range, breeding in the far north of America, Asia and 

 eastern Europe,- frequenting in spring and autumn the coasts of the 

 more temperate parts of each continent, and generally retiring 

 further southward in winter — examples not unfrequently reaching 

 the Cape Colony, Ceylon, Australia and even Tasmania. Charadrius 

 jilnvialis has a much narrower distribution, though Avhere it occurs 

 it is much more numerous as a species. Its breeding-quarters do 

 not extend further than from Iceland to western Siberia, but include 

 the more elevated tracts in the British Islands, whence in autumn 

 it spreads itself, often in immense flocks, over the cultivated districts 

 if the fields be sufficiently open. Here some will remain so long as 

 the absence of frost or snow permits, but the majority make for the 

 Mediterranean basin, or the countries beyond, in which to winter ; 

 and, as with the Grey Plover, stragglers find their way to the 



^ But for this really unimportant distinction both would doubtless have been 

 kept in the same genus, for they agree in most other structural characters. As 

 it is they have long been sundered. 



- The earliest account of its breeding in America was no doubt mistaken, but 

 it was found there by Mr. MacFarlane in 1864. The first discovery of its eggs 

 was by Von Middendorfi' in 1843, who described them {Sib. Reisc, ii. p. 209, 

 pi. xix. fig. 1), while another obtained by him has since been figured {Proc. Zool. 

 Sue. 1861, p. 398, pi. .xxxix. fig. 2). Subsequently it was found breeding in 

 Europe by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebohm {Ihis, 1876, pp. 222-230, pi. v.). 



