41i CHARADRIIDE. 



lip; nostrils longitudinally pierced in the membrane of the groove, linear, 

 oblong. Wings rather long, acuminate, with the first quill-feather the longest. 

 Legs slender, of mean length, naked above the tarsal joint. Feet four-toed, 

 three before and one behind ; front toes joined at their base by a membrane, 

 that portion of it between the outer and middle toe being the longest; hind toe 

 very small, or rudimental ; tarsi reticulated. Plumage thick, close, and ad- 

 pressed. — Selby. 



In its habits, its general appearance, and in its double 

 moult, or periodical change to black on the under surface of 

 the body during the breeding-season, the Grey Plover very 

 closely resembles the Golden Plover, figured at page 385, 

 but the presence of a hind toe, though small, prevents its 

 being included in the genus Charadruis^ (the species of which 

 have no hind toe,) without such an alteration and modification 

 of the characters of the genus as would interfere with correct 

 definition. I have, therefore, followed Cuvier, and some of 

 the authors whose ornithological works are referred to in the 

 list of synonymes, as well as others not there included, in adopt- 

 ing the genus Squatarola^ considering that this bird is also 

 entitled to be separated generically from Vanellus and Tringa. 



The Grey Plover, though similar in habits and somewhat 

 in appearance to the Golden Plover, as before observed, is by 

 no means so plentiful as a species, and may be considered a 

 winter visiter rather than a native resident, being much more 

 common at the end of autunm, through the winter, and in 

 the spring, than in summer, retiring to high northern lati- 

 tudes during the breeding-season, and reappearing in small 

 flocks when that season is over, I have occasionally ob- 

 tained a specimen in the London market in the full black 

 plumage at the end of May. Mr. Sclby says, " I have 

 occasionally met with one or two of these birds on the Fern 

 Islands in June, but could never detect any of their young. 

 These individuals, probably from some accidental cause, had 

 been unequal to the usual migration." Dr. Fleming says he 

 has reason to believe that it breeds in the high grounds of 



