466 CHARADRIIM:. 



(EDICNEMUS. Generic diameters. Beak stout, strong, and straight, a 

 little depressed at the base ; ridge of the upper mandible elevated, under 

 mandible with an angle at the symphisis. Nostrils placed in the middle 

 of the beak, extending longitudinally as far forward as the horny portion, 

 open in front, pervious. Legs long, slender ; three toes only, directed 

 forwards, united by a membrane as far as the second articulation. Wings 

 moderate ; second quill-feather the longest in the wing. Tail graduated. 



THE GREAT PLOVER, NORFOLK PLOVER, or STONE 

 CURLEW, names referring to qualities or habits in this 

 species, is a summer visitor to this country, arriving here 

 in April, and leaving again at the end of September or in 

 October, and, like other summer visitors, coming to us from 

 the south. It is accordingly much more numerous in the 

 southern and south-eastern counties of England than far 

 to the west, or to the north ; but, possessing great powers 

 of flight, the range of this bird is not so limited here as 

 has been supposed, and is otherwise, as will be shown, of 

 great geographical extent. 



One was killed in September, 1855, at Valentia Harbour, 

 but Mr. Thompson tells me that it is an extremely rare 

 visitant to Ireland. According to Mr. Couch, Dr. Edward 

 Moore, and Mr. Gale, this bird has been killed three or 

 four times in Cornwall, and is found, but is not plentiful, 

 in Devonshire and Dorsetshire. Peter Ryland, Esq. in- 

 cludes it in his Catalogue of the Birds of Lancashire ; and 

 Mr. Blyth mentions having received the young from 

 Worcestershire. In Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Essex, 

 Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, it is common. The 

 late Mr. J. D. Hoy, in a letter, says, " there is no part 

 of England where the (Edicnemus crepitans so abounds 

 as upon the sandy plains of Norfolk ; great numbers have 

 been caught in most seasons by the Subscription Heron 

 Hawks at Didlington Hall, Norfolk ; they have been 

 known to take refuge in a rabbit burrow when pursued by 

 the Hawk/' 



