OI' THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 147 



Genus CHARADRIU5, or Golden Plovers. 



Type, CHAEADEIUS PLUVIALIS. 



Charadrius, of Linnaeus (1766). — The birds comprising the present genus 

 are characterised by having the innermost secondaries very long and pointed, and 

 the under parts black in breeding plumage. The upper parts are spotted with 

 golden yellov? at all seasons. The hind toe is absent. The bill is shorter than 

 the head, and rather slender ; the nostrils are sub-basal and linear. The lower 

 portion of the tibia is naked. 



This genus is composed of three species, and is almost cosmopolitan, but the 

 species are most abundant in the high north in summer. One species is a common 

 resident in the British Islands, whilst the remaining two are abnormal migrants 

 to them. 



The Golden Plovers are dwellers on mountains, tundras, and plains, as well 

 as on the sea coast. They are birds of rapid and prolonged flight, and progress 

 on the ground by walking and running. Their notes are loud, and not unmusical. 

 They subsist on insects, worms, mollusks, small seeds, mountain fruits, and 

 shoots of herbage. Slight nests are made on the ground, and their eggs, pyriform 

 in shape and four in number, are richly spotted. They are monogamous ; social 

 in summer, gregarious in winter. 



