A HISTOEY 



I 



OF 



RITISH BIRDS. 





Family CHARADRIID^E, OR PLOVERS. 



THE Plovers and their allies are a large group of birds, very nearly allied 

 to the Cranes, and still more closely related to the Bustards ; from the 

 latter family they are scarcely separable. Forbes divided them into two 

 families, the Plovers and the Pratincoles, between which he placed the 

 Hemipodes. Sclater divides them into three families, the Sandpipers, 

 the Plovers, and the Pratincoles, to which he adds a fourth, the Stone- 

 Curlews. The notches on the posterior margin of the sternum are usually 

 two in number on each side; but some species are aberrant in this 

 respect, having only one notch on each side for example, the Woodcock, 

 Great Snipe, Common Snipe, Ruff, Common Sandpiper, and some other 

 species not found in Europe. In the modification of their cranial bones 

 they approach the Game Birds and the Gulls. Gadow regards the Plovers 

 as nearest related to the Gulls and Petrels, a second group being the 

 Cranes and Rails, and a third and perhaps a fourth the Storks and Herons, 

 these groups forming an Order. 



In this family, as in the Game Birds, the Bustards, and the Gulls, the 

 young are covered with down when they are hatched, and are able to run 

 almost immediately. Plovers and Sandpipers generally moult twice in the 

 year, in spring and in autumn. The young in first plumage more or less 

 resemble the adults in summer dress. In their first autumn they begin to 



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