CHARADRIUS. 



11 



and the boundary-line where the one begins and the other ends cannot be 

 drawn to a nicety. Nature has drawn very few lines^ but she is fond of 

 producing very characteristic masses^ which the intelligent eye can easily 

 see and broadly define. It is only the pedant who ignores the difference 

 between mountain and valley^ because, forsooth, he cannot say to an inch 

 where one begins and the other ends. 



The Plovers inhabit almost all kinds of scenery, from the bare mountain- 

 tops to the richly cultivated lands, the open moors and commons, and the 

 sea-shore. During the breeding-season they are more or less sociable, and 

 in winter often congregate in large flocks. They run and walk with ease, 

 and their flight is powerful, moderately quick, and Avell sustained. Their 

 usual note is a loud and shrill whistle, often considerably modulated, 

 during the pairing-season, into a not unmusical trill, uttered as the bird 

 takes a short flight in the air, almost after the manner of the Pipits. 

 Their food consists of insects, worms, mollusks, small marine animals, &c. 

 Some species make a slight nest in a depression in the ground, others 

 deposit their eggs in a hollow in the sand or on shingle ; and their eggs, 

 generally four in number, are very pyriform, buff of different shades, 

 spotted, blotched, and streaked with brownish black and with grey under- 

 lying markings. 



