CHAPTER X 



PLOVERS, GULLS, AND AUKS 

 Order— CHARADRIIFORMES 



The birds which form the subject of the present chapter represent 

 a very varied assemblage, yet all are closely related. They include, 

 besides the typical Plovers, the Pratincoles, Stilts, Curlews, Snipes, 

 Phalaropes, Gulls, and Terns. All are Plovers, in a wide sense. 



While some frequent inland waters and marshy places, others 

 keep more or less entirely to the sea coast. Though the majority 

 are never found far from water, some have contrived to find a living 

 on dry, sandy wastes. All are remarkable for their great powers of 

 flight, some, indeed, performing prodigious journeys during migration. 



The young of the more typical of the Plover tribe are all quite 

 active from the moment they leave the shell, and are covered in short 

 down more or less mottled with black ; but the coloration of the 

 down varies greatly in different species, being very pale in such as 

 breed in sandy wastes, dark when the nesting-ground is in marshy 

 areas. 



One of the most aberrant of the Plover tribe is the beautiful 

 Pratincole (Plate XIV. fig. 6), a bird which in many ways recalls 

 the Swallow. Since it has occurred several times in Great Britain, 

 it is therefore to be reckoned a British bird ; but these visits are very 

 rare. It breeds, however, in many parts of Europe. Like the 

 Swallow, this bird takes much of its food on the wing — beetles, grass- 

 hoppers, and locusts forming the principal prey. On the ground 

 it runs nimbly. 



This bird is described as an " aberrant " Plover, because it is in 



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