2 
TJic Grey Plover. 
ii]K)n them. I thoug'ht at first tliat they must be Golden Plover 
in breeding" plumage, but after a while I was able to get closer 
to them, although never within anything like gunshot, and 1 
then made them out to be a pair of Grey Plover in full breeding 
plumage; and very handsome they looked too in the morning' 
sun. These birds are said to be numerous on the East Coast 
but this is certainly not the case on the West side. I have never 
seen more than five at any time, and that but seldom. In the: 
autumn of the same year I obtained two young ones out of a 
flock of four. They very closely resemble young Golden Plover, 
but they are easily identified, as they have a small hind toe,, 
which the others have not. The Golden Plover is seldom seen 
on our shores, except in large flocks. The Grey Plover is one 
of the few birds that is found at times in practically every 
country in the world. I have shot them on the Pacific Coast, 
when I only met with them in small family parties or in pairs., 
Ridgway claims them as a different species, but I was never able 
to note any difference in the specimens I shot, and if they have; 
any distinguishing feature, it must be a A^ery small one. Ameri- 
can Ornithologists are very fond of multiplying species, I think 
quite unnecessarily so. 
Until the la,st few years nothing was known of the breed- 
ing habits of this species, but now some of their nesting haunts 
ruv known, and a very interestin,^- account of the finding of nesrs 
on the tundras of the Petchora River is given by Mr. Henrv 
Seebohm. He says, " Nest, practically none; a hollow, round 
" and deep, with a few broken slender twig's and reindeer 
" moss. Eggs four in number and double-spotted. Inter- 
" mediate in colour between those of the Lapwing' and Golden 
" Plover and subject to variation, some being much browner 
" and others more olive, none quite as olive as typical Lap- 
" wings' eggs, or as buff as those of the Golden Plover, but 
" the blotching is in every respect the same. The underlying 
" spots are equally indistinct, the surface spots are generallv 
" large, especially at the larger end but occasionally very 
" small and scattered, and sometimes taking the form of thin 
" streaks. The female generally comes first to the nest, after 
" having been driven off it, Imt she comes less conspicuously 
" than the male, generally making her appearance at a con- 
