536 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



old coverts faded and worn ; new innermost secondaries, median 

 and lesser coverts black, broadly barred and notched golden and 

 tipped and notched cream. Female. — As male but black of under- 

 pays usually intermixed with white ; under tail-coverts white 

 with brown or black-brown markings. N.B. — Sometimes some 

 winter body -feat hers are retained. 



Nestling. — (Not examined.) 



Juvenile. — Resembles adult winter but upper -parts brown- 

 black or dark sepia notched and tipped golden much as in juvenile 

 C. apricarius ; eye-stripe, ear-coverts, cheeks and sides of neck 

 white or pale golden streaked dusky ; chin white ; throat cream or 

 pale yellow heavily streaked dusky ; breast fulvous, feathers notched 

 at tip pale yellow or cream and streaked or barred darker fulvous 

 or sepia ; flanks white or pale fulvous and tipped and barred darker 

 and barred white or cream ; belly washed pale fulvous and some- 

 times barred darker ; remaining under -parts as adult ; tail- 

 feathers sepia indistinctly barred darker and notched and tipped 

 golden ; innermost secondaries and coverts as mantle ; median 

 and lesser coverts black-brown or sepia, slightly notched creamy- 

 white or golden. 



First winter. Male and female. — Cannot be distinguished with 

 certainty from adult winter. Juvenile body-plumage (not all 

 scapulars), some innermost secondaries and apparently coverts, 

 median and lesser coverts, are moulted in autumn and winter but 

 not rest of wings and apparently not tail. N.B. — Two Jan. birds 

 examined were still in juvenile plumage. 



Measurements and structure. — $ wing 177-190 mm., tail 61-69, 

 tarsus 41-43, bill from feathers 21-24 (12 measured). $ wing 171- 

 190, bill 22-24. Primaries : 1st minute, 2nd longest, 3rd 4-10 mm. 

 shorter, 4th 13-21 shorter, 5th 24-31 shorter, 6th 35-46 shorter. 

 Other structure as in C. apricarius. 



Soft parts. — Bill black ; legs and feet greyish-black ; iris brown. 



Characters and allied form. — For differences of C. d. fulvus see 

 under that form. Distinguished from C. apricarius by fulvous -grey 

 axillaries. 



Field -characters. — Not only smaller and more slender than Grey 

 Plover, but proportionately longer winged, with a swifter, more 

 buoyant flight. Under -wing, entirely grey, is more strikingly 

 different from the white, with black axillary patch of Grey Plover, 

 than one would suppose. Favourite feeding ground dry pastures 

 or downs. Flight-note a far-reaching " quee-i-i-a," with a quaver in 

 middle and falling at end. Less mellow and whistled than that of 

 Grey Plover but suggesting that call reversed, and with the thrilling 

 Plover quality. (J. T. Nichols.) 



Breeding-habits. — Nests on tundra. Nest. — A mere depression 

 on ground generally with a few dead leaves or grass as lining. Eggs. 

 • — Normally 4, but 5 once recorded, decidedly smaller than those of 

 European species, and less richly marked, having as a rule a paler 



