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NOTES ON THE GREY PLOVER ON THE 

 YENESEI. 



BY 



MAUD D. HAVILAND. 



The Grey Plover (Squatarola squatarola) was the last 

 of several interesting \Naders whose nests 1 found at 

 Golchika on the Yenesei liver in 1914, and with the 

 exception of the Curlew-Sandpiper, it was the only 

 species of A\'hich I was not able to photograph the bird 

 at the nest. 



In the field, the Grey Plover seems to stand midway 

 between our Golden and Green Plovers. Its plumage and 

 its poses at the nest, except for a certain lumpislmess 

 of attitude, are of the type of those ' f the Golden Plover ; 

 while in the colour of the eggs, and in some tricks of 

 wing-craft, it resembles the Lapwing. Its voice in 

 the breeding-season, too, has a ring of the alarm note 

 of the Lapwing, although better observers might not 

 admit this. Seebohm* describes the -whistle as a 

 plaintive " kop,"" and giv^es the call-note as a double 

 " kl-eep." He also syllabifies a third call as " kl-ee-kop," 

 and says that it is uttered on the \\ing, and mor.^ seldom 

 than the other two. I never heard any note except 

 this latter one, which was uttered when the nest or 

 young were approached, both when the bird Mas on 

 the wing and also A\hen it was running over the tundra. 

 It might just as well be written '' pee a weep," for 

 although in timbre it is very like the call of the Asiatic 

 Golden Plover, in form and ])hrase it is like that of 

 the Lapwing. 



The Grey Plover on the Y'enesei, as seems, indeed, to 

 be the case in all its recorded haunts, is nuich more of 

 a marsh lover than the Golden J^lover, and })erhaps 

 this is Avhy it is rather scarce there. Mr. H. L. Popham 



* Siberia in Kuropc, pji. 174, 175. 



