GREY PLOVER. 104 



SQUATAROLA CINEREA (Flem.) 

 GEEY PLOVER. 



Grey Plover, though as compared with the golden 

 at no time very numerous, visit us regularly in 

 autumn, and usually make their appearance on Breydon 

 and other parts of the coast, about the first week in 

 October. Mr. Dowell, however, states that in August, 

 1852, he observed several frequenting the " freshes " at 

 Blakeney, which still retained their full summer plumage, 

 and I have occasionally seen young birds in September 

 as early as the 17th, which at that time exhibited, in 

 their first plumage, a great resemblance to the golden 

 plover, for which I have no doubt in this stage, they are 

 frequently mistaken.* One of these, in my own collec- 

 tion, killed on the 22nd of September, 1853, has all those 

 portions of the upper parts of the plumage, which are 

 usually white in the adult bird, more or less tinged 

 with straw colour, resembling in this respect an example 

 figured by Audubon in his " Birds of America." The 

 large size of the bill, the presence of the hind toe, and 

 the long feathers under the wing being black instead 

 of white, as in the golden plover, distinguish this species 

 at any age. 



A few are seen on Breydon throughout the winter, 

 but, as Mr. Frere informs me, not often as many as 

 twenty or thirty at a time. Mr. Dowell describes them 

 as seen mostly in pairs, which, joined to their shyness, 

 renders them " much less profitable to the fowler than 

 the golden plover, and they are, moreover, a great 



* Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, who include this species in 

 their " Catalogue" under the name of the " Swiss sandpiper," men- 

 tion the "yellow spots" of autumnal specimens, but evidently 

 under the impression that this plumage is assumed by the old 

 birds at that season and not confined to the young of the year. 



