GREY PLOVER. 101 
SQUATAROLA CINEREA (Flem.) 
GREY PLOVER. 
Grey Plover, though as compared with the golden 
at no time very numerous, visit us regularly in 
autumn, and usually make their appearance on Breydon 
and other parts of the coast, about the first week in 
October. Mr. Dowell, however, states that in August, 
1852, he observed several frequenting the “freshes” at 
Blakeney, which still retained their full summer plumage, 
and I have occasionally seen young birds in September 
as early as the 17th, which at that time exhibited, in 
their first plumage, a great resemblance to the golden 
plover, for which I have no doubt in this stage, they are 
frequently mistaken.* One of these, in my own collec- 
tion, killed on the 22nd of September, 1853, has all those 
portions of the upper parts of the plumage, which are 
usually white in the adult bird, more or less tinged 
with straw colour, resembling in this respect an example 
figured by Audubon in his “ Birds of America.” The 
large size of the bill, the presence of the hind toe, and 
the long feathers under the wing being black instead 
of white, as in the golden plover, distinguish this species 
at any age. 
A few are seen on Breydon throughout the winter, 
but, as Mr. Frere informs me, not often as many as 
twenty or thirty ata time. Mr. Dowell describes them 
as seen mostly in pairs, which, joined to their shyness, 
renders them “much less profitable to the fowler than 
the golden plover, and they are, moreover, a great 
* Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, who include this species in 
their “‘ Catalogue” under the name of the “ Swiss sandpiper,” men- 
tion the “yellow spots” of autumnal specimens, but evidently 
under the impression that this plumage is assumed by the old 
birds at that season and not confined to the young of the year. 
