CHARADRIUS. 
81 
figure of this nest is irregular and bad, and the eggs worse.* These 
are four in number, larger than those of the goldfinch, of a dirty 
white, tinged with purple, marked v/ith streaks and spots of dark pur- 
ple. Its notes are few, and scarcely deserve the name of song. Both 
sexes have a monotonous call, which seems to express the word twink^ 
whence it is provincially called by that name. 
In summer these birds live chiefly upon insects, with which they 
feed their young ; in winter they become gregarious, and feed on seeds 
and grain. They remain with us during the whole year, and flock with 
other hard-billed birds in the colder months ; but the sexes do not 
separate, as they are known to do in Holland, and other countries. 
Mr. White makes mention of flocks of females being seen in Hamp- 
shire ; these probably came from some northern county. * “ All the 
British ornithologists,” says Selby, describe this species as permanently 
resident with us, and nowhere subject to that separation of the sexes 
and the consequent equinoctial movement of the females, which is 
known to take place in Sweden and other northern countries. The 
fact, however, is otherwise, as the experience of a series of years has 
evinced that these birds, in a general point of view, obey the same 
natural law in the north of England. In Northumberland and Scot- 
land, this separation takes place about the month of November, and 
from that period till the return of spring, few females are to be seen, 
and those few always in distinct societies. The males remain, and are 
met with, during the winter, in immense flocks, feeding with other 
granivorous birds in the stubble -land, as long as the weather continues 
mild, and the ground free from snow ; and resorting, upon the aj>proach 
of storm, to farm-yards, and other places of refuge and supply. This 
separation of sexes, I am inclined to believe, takes place in many 
other species, with respect to their migratory movements, as in 
the instance of the snow-bunting. This appears also to be the case 
with the woodcock, having observed that the first flight of these birds 
consist chiefly of females, whilst, on the contrary, the later flights are 
principally composed of males.”* 
CHALDRICK or C HARDER. — Names for the Oyster Catcher. 
CHANK. — A name for the Chough. 
CHARADRIADiE (Leach.)— * Birds of the Plover kind.* 
CHARADRIUS (LinntEus.) — * Plover, a genus thus characterised. 
Bill shorter than the head, slender, straight, compressed, nasal furrow 
prolonged more than two-thirds ; mandibles bulged towards the tip. 
Nostrils at the base, jagged, slit lengthwise in the middle of a large 
membrane, which covers the fosse. Legs long or of middle length, 
G 
