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 Godaiming, too, in Surrey, a few 
have been killed.t 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 Busticus, p. 159. 
