GREY PLOVER. 55 



at the large end, but occasionally very small and scattered, and sometimes 

 taking the form of thin streaks. They vary in length from 2'2 to 1'9 inch, 

 and in breadth from 1'4 to 1*35 inch. Only one brood is reared in the year. 



The adult male Grey Plover in breeding-plumage has the general colour 

 of the upper parts, including the tail, white, barred with black and brown ; 

 the quills are very dark brown, with a white wedge-shaped pattern on the 

 inner web, and more or less extended shaft-streaks, especially on the last 

 primaries ; the forehead, a stripe over the eye, the sides of the neck, and 

 the upper tail-coverts are nearly white. The lores, ear-coverts, and axil- 

 laries are black, as are also the rest of the underparts, except the under 

 wing-coverts, thighs, vent, and under tail-coverts, which are white. Bill, 

 legs, feet, and claws black ; irides dark hazel. The female is not quite so 

 handsome a bird, the white parts are clouded and mottled with brown, the 

 black on the underparts is duller and mixed with white, and brown instead 

 of black is the predominant colour of the bars on the back. After the 

 autumn moult the upper parts of the male are brown narrowly barred with 

 white, whilst the underparts are white streaked on the sides of the neck 

 and breast and on the flanks with brown. In the female the white bars 

 on the head and back are reduced to obscure pale ends to the feathers, and 

 the streaks on the underparts are more abundant and less clearly defined. 

 Young in first plumage very closely resemble the winter plumage of adults 

 on the underparts, except that the white is slightly suffused with buff, and 

 the streaks are larger and more conspicuous. The colours of the upper 

 parts are, however, very different to those of adults : the ground-colour is 

 a uniform dark brown, which, instead of being barred with white, is spotted 

 with yellow. These yellow spots fade into white during the winter, few 

 feathers being apparently moulted, but in spring the feathers appear to be 

 moulted into nearly adult plumage. 



In this species it seems that the young retain most of their first feathers 

 until their first spring moult, when they acquire a plumage so nearly re- 

 sembling that of the adult as to be scarcely distinguishable from it. Young 

 in down are deep yellow above, spotted and blotched with black, and are 

 nearly white underneath. They are scarcely distinguishable from young in 

 down of the Golden Plover or the Asiatic Golden Plover. At all ages 

 and in all plumages the Grey Plover may be distinguished from its allies 

 by having black axillaries and a small hind toe. 



