CIIARADRID^E. 335 



our muddy shores, not, however, remaining to breed, 

 although it occasionally stays long enough to have 

 nearly, if not quite, assumed its summer plumage. 



The food of the Grey Plover consists of marine 

 insects, shore-worms and small shell-fish, which it 

 finds on the mud. Meyer adds to this " worms, 

 beetles and their larvae, which it finds on meadows 

 and wastes." I have never myself seen this species 

 except on the mud ; it may, however, and probably 

 does, retire to such places during high spring-tides, 

 when its usual feeding-places are under water. 



The accounts of the nest of the Grey Plover seem 

 to be from high northern latitudes, and these ac- 

 counts are very meagre. 



The young birds of the year very much resemble 

 the young of the Golden Plover: I saw some at 

 Teignmouth in November, in the poulterers' shops, 

 that, looking at them across the street, you could 

 hardly identify, and I dare say the poulterer sold 

 them for Golden Plovers ; still on a closer inspec- 

 tion they may always be identified by the hind toe 

 and by the axillary plume, that is, the longish 

 feathers immediately under the wing, where it joins 

 the body, which in this species is black at all ages. 



The plumage in which the Grey Plover most 

 frequently occurs is its ordinary winter plumage, 

 which is as follows: The beak is black; irides 

 dark brown ; just over the beak is white, rest of the 

 head and nape ]ight dusky, each feather narrowly 



