CHAPTEE XV. 

 BAY BIEDS. 



Their haunts and habits. — Methods of shooting them. 



The greater number of the shore birds of the Conti- 

 nent, such as plovers, godwits, willets, yellow-legs, 

 curlews, and sandpipers, are called Bay Birds by 

 the majority of sportsmen, owing to their fondness 

 for the sea shore and the regions adjoining water. 

 These various species are placed in the order Limicoloe, 

 which has numerous representatives. Birds belonging to 

 it have a globose head, which slopes abruptly to the base 

 of the bill; the bill is weak, flexible, somewhat soft- 

 skinned, and therefore sensitive and blunt at the tip, 

 without hard, cutting edges; the nostrils are like a slit, 

 never feathered, and are surrounded by a soft skin ; the 

 tibia IS more or less naked; the legs are elongated; and 

 the hind toe is free and elevated, but is often wanting. 



The family CharadriidcB, to which plovers belong, 

 may be distinguished from the others by having the bill 

 shorter than the head, the broad, soft base separated by a 

 constriction from the hard tip, the neck short, the tarsus 

 reticulate, and only three toes, except in the squatarola. 

 All species of plover have the peculiar habit, after alight- 

 ing on the ground, during the breeding season, of stand- 

 ing with legs half bent and drooping wings, and trem- 

 bling as if they had a severe fit of the ague. They act as 

 if they were on their last legs, and utter a singular sound, 

 which is more of a plaint than a song of joy, at becom- 

 ing the parents of promising families. 

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