SHORE BIRDS OF NOVA SCOTIA — GILPTN. 383 



The next birds which may be said from their numbers to modify 

 our landscape are the plover, the green or golden plover, and the 

 larger beetle heads. They usually migrate together, and are 

 seen with us from August and September, a few lingering till 

 November. Heavy south-west gales confuse them, and mass 

 them in numbers as they prepare to light, during the gale, in the 

 fields and on the shores. The large kind rather affect the fields, 

 the smaller kind the shores. It is very seldom you meet a male 

 in full plumage, or black breast and belly. Their usual colour is 

 spotted greenish on the back, with black splotched beneath. 

 Coues denies the greenish or yellow wash upon the larger spe- 

 cies, but my note, Sept. 20th, 1881, gives this yellow wash upon 

 their backs. I have also observed a black spot beneath the wing - , 

 near the shoulder, as typical of the larger species. The fourth 

 toe, or nail, in the larger, wanting in the smaller, is the best 

 mark to determine the young from each other as they approach 

 each in colour and size. A very handsome male in full nuptial 

 plumage, with deep black breast and vent, may be seen in the 

 Halifax Museum, of the larger species. Though in the thousands 

 which annually pass us during the autumn, I never have 

 found one. 



Of the various other birds of this family that pass us in num- 

 bers, there are so few that the sportsman or naturalist only ob- 

 serves them. We may notice the Sanderling whose appearance 

 at Digby I note during September, in his usual grey dress. The 

 Killdeer very rare, having a single notice of him during March, 

 at Halifax. The Turnstone cosmopolites, appearing everywhere, 

 are seen at Digby during September. The Avoset I saw at St. 

 John, killed there, and in Mr. Carnal's collection. The three dif- 

 ferent kinds of Curlew I have determined. The larger great 

 billed Curlew seen by myself Sept., 1870, at Windsor, N. S. ; the 

 Esquimau Curlew, and the smaller Esquimau Curlew, distin- 

 guished from the last by its size, and not having the wings be- 

 neath barred as in the last. 



My notes give September for all these species. The cape 

 Curlew I have noted Halifax, October. Tringa subarquata, 

 Schinss sand piper, I note Halifax, Oct., 1864, but I am not cer- 



