930 
SQUATAEOLA HELVETICA. 
washed with brown on the terminal half ; shafts of all the quills white, except at the tip ; upper tail-coverts and 
three outer tail-feathers white, with black bars ; remainder with alternate brownish-black and greyish-white bars ; 
forehead, above the eye, chin, face, throat, and under surface white, the feathers on the face, fore neck, chest, and 
flanks with brown centres, narrow on the fore neck and face, and widened on the chest ; on the upper flanks the 
markings take the form of bars, and in front and beneath the eye they are confluent ; axillary plume and least 
under wing-coverts coal-black ; lateral under tail-coverts barred with black on then’ outer webs. 
Adult male and female (Europe ; England). Length 105 to 11-0 inches ; wing 7’4 to 7-6 ; tail 2-6 ; tarsus 1’7 to 1’8 ; 
middle toe and claw l - 35 ; bill to gape 1*3. 
Male in breeding-plumage (May, Sussex). Lores, face, ear-coverts, chin, throat, chest, breast, and flanks coal-black, 
not passing round the eye, but extending just above the anterior corner (in some specimens the eyelid above is 
fringed with black) ; forehead aud a broad band passing over the eye and down the border of the black neck to 
the sides of the chest, abdomen, vent, thighs, and under tail-coverts white, passing on the crown, nape, and hind 
neck into greyish ; the feathers in these parts centred with black ; back, rump, and wing-coverts chiefly dull black, 
the feathers tipped and laterally spotted with whitish grey, the latter markings on the wing-coverts extending 
towards the shafts and making these parts whiter than the back ; primaries brownish black, the greater portion 
of the inner webs white, and the shafts with a patch of white near the tip ; the shorter feathers with a white 
patch on the outer webs near the lip ; secondaries white at the base, darkening into ashy brown on the 
inner and into blackish brown on the outer webs towards the tip ; the elongated tertials ashy brown, indented 
with black and white at the margins of the outer webs ; upper tail-coverts white, with marginal bars of black ; 
tail white, barred with black (the centre feathers broadly) and also obscured with black near the tip, the extremities 
being white ; the lateral mider tail-coverts with marginal spots of black, and the white sides of the chest patched 
scantily with black ; axillary plume black ; under wing white. In some specimens the white almost predominates 
over the black on the upper surface. A male from Barcelona (May) exhibits this character, the white tippings 
and marginal patches being very broad, especially on the back. 
Female in breeding-plumage. The black of the throat and under surface of a brownish hue ; this is said to be normally 
the case : a specimen which I have examined, in Mr. Dresser’s collection, in May exhibits this character ; the dark 
markings of the upper surface are also brownish black. The black is acquired by a change of the feather, which 
can be plainly seen in spring examples ; the alteration in colour commences at the tip and extends up the feather. 
In specimens I have examined I detect but few, if any, new black feathers, as in the next species. 
Young, nestling in down (Petchora river, Mus. Seebohm). Top and sides of head, back, wings and rump, and outer 
side of thighs dull golden yellow, coarsely mottled with dull black ; nape, hind neck, a patch on each side of the 
rump, and under surface dull white; down the centre of the forehead there is a straight stripe, as in the young of 
Oh. pluvialis, and there is a streak above and below the gape, as in Ch. fulvus. The chick is intermediate in 
marking between these two last named ; and the conspicuous white hind neck, as well as the large bill and legs, 
besides the presence of a hind toe, would serve to identify it readily ; the lower cheek-stripe encircles a white patch 
below r the eye in all three species. 
Immature (British Museum ; ltocky Mountains). Head, nape, interscapulars, tertials, and wing-coverts blackish brown, 
palest on the wing-coverts ; the feathers of the head margined with dull golden yellow, and those of the remaining 
parts in question with large marginal spots of the same ; back much the same, but the spots less pure ; tail barred 
black and white, the white changing near the tip into golden yellow ; upper tail-coverts wdiite, tipped with yellowish. 
Forehead, face, and throat dull white, streaked with black, which pales and blends wdth the whitish on the fore neck ; 
sides of the chest marked with blackish brown and faint yellowish ; beneath from the chest dull whitish. 
Obs. In this plumage the Grey Plover is not unlike the Asiatic Golden Plover; but the yellow spottings are paler, and, 
to the inexperienced, the larger bill, conspicuous black axillaries (seen even in flight), and, above all, the hind toe 
will always serve as distinctive marks. 
Distribution. — The Grey Plover has not been noticed in Ceylon until recently. I met with it at 
Illepekadua on the 10th March, 1876, and recorded its occurrence in ‘ Stray Feathers/ loc.cit. Two days 
afterwards I saw a small flock at Manaar. Mr. Murray, of the Ceylon Civil Service, subsequently informed 
me that he had often met with it at Jaffna, and that in some seasons it was tolerably common on the beach 
