THE GEEY PLOVER. 233 



The winter dress of the grey kind is brown, of 

 different shades, in each feather marked angularly 

 with grey, ash, or whitish yellow ; while the summer 

 plumage contains a great deal of the richest black, 

 and the underneath parts much interspersed with 

 white, such as the vent, tail-coverts, thighs, &c. The 

 upper portions of back, scapulars, &c., finely varie- 

 gated in browns, each feather edged with white. 

 Upper tail white, barred with brown part of the dis- 

 tance; central feathers coming to a point, axillary 

 feathers black. 



The plover shares in the quarrelsome nature of 

 the mff, and other birds of similar habits ; but in an 

 inferior degree. As soon as the brood leaves the egg, 

 the parent bird leads them about; for as they are 

 thickly covered with down, they require less care than 

 birds of the poultiy kind. 



The generic characters of the Squatarola are thus 

 described by the accurate pen of Jardine : — " Bill 

 rather strong, tumid, flattened on the culmen ; cylin- 

 drical towards the tip, which is hard ; nasal groove 

 wide, more than half the length of the bill ; nostrils 

 linear, pierced in the nasal membrane; wings long, 

 pointed, first quill longest; legs rather short, bare 

 for a short space only above the tarsal joint ; toes con- 

 nected by a small basal membrane, slightly fringed 

 on their edges ; hallux rudimentaiy, or wanting. 

 Types : S. Unarea jjluviauiis. Virginianus. Cosmo- 

 polite. Breed inland ; gregarious, except during in- 

 cubation : imdergo a seasonal change " 



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