472 



8 



for it Harvie-Brown came up, and I gave up the search, and we again turned towards the boat. 

 When we had got about halfway towards the spot where Harvie-Brown had been looking, I 

 caught sight of a young Grey Plover in down, almost at my feet. Stooping down to pick it up, 

 I saw the nest with three eggs not a yard from me. This was the last and eleventh nest of these 

 rare birds which we found. The young in down are very yellow, speckled with black, and are 

 admirably adapted for concealment upon the yellow-green moss on the edges of the little bogs 

 close to which the Grey Plover seems always to choose a place for its nest. 



" Our attempt to hatch the highly incubated eggs, and thus obtain specimens of young in 

 down, was successful. We soon had five young Grey Plovers well and hearty, and saved three or 

 four more afterwards. 



" We subsequently spent a week at Dvoinik, a hundred miles lower down the Petchora, on 

 the shores of the lagoon. Here we found the Grey Plover even more abundant than on the 

 tundra opposite Alexievka. It frequented exactly the same description of ground. Our inter- 

 preter shot a Grey Plover from the nest, and brought us four young in down from it, evidently 

 just hatched. This was on the 22nd of July ; and two days later I caught a young Grey Plover 

 in down, somewhat older and greyer in colour." 



Mr. Seebohm has kindly sent me a specimen of the young in down of the present species, 

 which I have figured together with the young of the Golden Plover for comparison. Although 

 in this plumage the two species resemble each other much, yet the Grey Plover may be distin- 

 guished by its being rather less marked with yellow, especially on the back, where the markings 

 are paler and bolder ; the hind neck is marked with white ; and the underparts are whiter than 

 in the Golden Plover. 



The rich series of eggs obtained by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebohm, are described by 

 the latter as being " intermediate in colour between those of the Golden Plover and the Peewit, 

 and subject to variation, some being much browner, and others more olive, none quite as green 

 as typical Peewit's eggs, or as orange as typical ones of the Golden Plover ; but the blotching is 

 in every respect the same, the underlying spots equally indistinct, the surface-spots generally 

 large, especially at the larger end, but occasionally very small and scattered. In size they vary 

 from If § by 1±£ i nc h to 2- 4 % by 1££ inch." 



