GREAT PLOVER. 437 



CEoiCNEMUS. Generic C/iaracters. 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 visiter 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. 



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 sent to me, 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. 



