THE GREY PLOVER. 109 



period. Of four stomachs (or gizzards, which are strongly plaited 

 internally) examined at different times in reference to food, one was 

 half filled with specimens of the shell Paludina muriatica, Lam., 

 chiefly perfect ; another exhibited two or three whelks [Littorina 

 littorea) and sand ; a third, excepting a Littorina retusa, was 

 filled with very small whelks ; and the fourth contained a portion 

 of a marine plant {Ulva), with fragments of stone. Two of these 

 birds were killed in September, and two in December. Tt is not 

 considered so good for the table, and brings a less price in Belfast 

 market than the golden plover, which is in much estimation. 

 The latter is generally sold from Is. to Is. 4d. a couple by re- 

 tail. 



The note of the grey, is louder and more of a whistle than that 

 of the golden, plover. The old shooter already alluded to, who 

 may be considered " good authority," from his having brought 

 both these species, as well as curlews, whimbrels, godwits, and 

 knots within shot by imitating their cries, terms the note 

 of the grey plover a double whistle ; that of the golden, a 

 single one. Whistling plover is one of the names by which 

 the species especially under consideration is distinguished upon 

 our coast. 



I have known the grey plover to frequent the sea-shore only. 

 When driven off its feeding ground by the flowing tide, it does 

 not leave the shore, but remains on floating sea-weed, or on some 

 dry spot, until the ebb has taken place. The golden plover and 

 the lapwing fly inland under such circumstances. Sir William 

 Jardine, however, mentions his having in one instance shot a 

 pair in the month of August on the banks of one of the Lochs 

 Maben, Dumfries-shire.* At Godalming, too, in Surrey, a few 

 have been killed.f The breeding haunts of this bird in the United 

 States, as reported by Wilson and Audubon, are inland, and 

 similar to those resorted to by the golden plover with us. Black- 

 bellied plover is the name applied to the species in their works ; the 

 4th volume of the Ornithological Biography contains an interest- 



* Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 288. f Letters of Kusticus, p. 159. 



