138 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



Wattled and Spurred Plovers, the former having a lappet of 

 bright coloured skin on the face, while the spur, in those 

 genera which possess it, like the Nile Plover (Hoplopterus 

 spetiosus), is often quite a formidable weapon. In England, 

 however, none of these forms have as yet made their appearance 

 in a wild state, and all our species are unarmed and un- 

 decorated. 



THE GREY PLOVERS. GENUS SQUATAROLA. 



Squatarola^ Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. & Birds, Brit. Mus. 

 p. 29 (1816). 



Type, S. helvetica (Linn.). 



In the first group of Plovers, to which the genus Squatarola 

 belongs, the inner secondaries are always very long and pointed. 

 They are all birds of rapid flight, and very different in the 

 latter respect from the slower and more flapping Lapwings. 

 The Grey Plover, which is the only species of the genus 

 Squatarola^ puts on a black breast in summer, like the Golden 

 Plovers (Charadrius), but it is easily distinguished from the 

 latter by ti\e presence of a small hind-toe. 



I. THE GREY PLOVER. SQUATAROLA HELVETICA. 



Tringa helvetica. Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 250 (1766). 

 Pluvialis squatarola^ Macg. Brit. B. iv. p. 86 (1852). 

 Squatarola helvetica^ Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 455, pis. 515, fig. 



2, 517, fig. 2, 518, fig. 2 (1871) ; B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 



158 (1883) ; Saunders, ed. Yarr. Brit B. iii. p. 278 (1883) ; 



id. Man. Brit. B. p. 535 (1889) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. 



Mus. xxiv. p. 182. 



Charadrius helveticus^ Seebohm, Brit. B. iii. p. 44 (1886). 

 Squatarola cinerea, Lilford. Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xviii. (1891). 



Adult Male. General colour above mottled with bars of black 

 and ashy-white, the latter in the form of notches and tips on 

 the feathers ; scapulars and wing-coverts like the back, the 

 greater series edged with white, and the inner ones notched ; 

 quills black, with the middle of the shaft white, and with white 

 on the inner webs, extending on the inner primaries to the 



