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PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. RY 6 
cannot be regarded as a very remarkable feature of 
avine life upon the coast; and it is, doubtless, 
because they are so little known to the majority of 
seaside visitors, that they appeal so much less to 
the popular mind than the more ubiquitous Gulls. 
But from September onwards to the following 
spring, Plovers and Sandpipers are the most 
prominent characteristics of all the more low-lying 
coasts. We will briefly glance at those species that 
not only frequent such situations regularly every 
season, but occur in sufficient numbers to place 
them beyond the category of abnormal visitors, or 
storm-driven wanderers from their natural haunts. 
GOLDEN PLOVER. 
This species, the Charadrius pluvialis of ornitho- 
logists, is, from the regularity of its appearance 
and its great abundance, known almost everywhere 
as the Plover of the coast. It derives its trivial 
name from the profusion of golden yellow drop-like 
spots which adorn its upper plumage, and may 
always be distinguished from allied species by its 
barred tail feathers and white axillaries. Large 
flights of Golden Plover begin to appear on our 
low-lying coasts in September, and through October 
and November the number steadily increases. 
Many of these birds simply pass along our shore- 
line to haunts in the Mediterranean basin, but 
many linger thereon through the winter. One of 
the great haunts of this Plover is along the shores 
