140 
ALLEN’S naturalist’s LICRARY. 
of Grey Plover remain with us during the winter, the species is 
much better known as a spring and autumn migrant, and is 
especially noticed at the latter season of the year, when young 
birds are often procurable. Black-breasted examples are to be 
found up to the end of May in the British Islands, while some 
have been shot in June and July. These were probably non- 
breeding birds. It is never so common in Ireland as in 
England and Scotland, and is always more abundant on the 
east than on the west, so that in the Outer Hebrides it is con- 
sidered a rare bird. 
Eange outside the British Islands. — The Grey Plover breeds in 
the high north of both hemispheres, and may thus be considered 
a typical circum-polar bird. Until recent years its egg was one 
of the chief desiderata for every collector, and even now but 
few collections contain genuine examples. It has been found 
nesting on Kolguev Island, as well as in the valley of the Pet- 
chora, and on the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia, while in the New 
World the only known places are Alaska, the Anderson River, 
and the Melville Peninsula. In winter, however, it wanders 
far southward and occurs in nearly every country of the Old 
World, visiting South Africa, the Indian Peninsula, and Aus- 
tralia. In the New World it does not range so far to the 
southward, and appears not to extend beyond Brazil or Peru, 
though it probably goes to the extreme of the South American 
continent. 
Habits. — The Grey Plover is seldom met with inland, like 
the Golden Plover, but is decidedly more a bird of the sea- 
shore and the mud-flats. It is also of a shyer disposition, and 
is much more difficult than the Golden Plover to call within 
gun-shot, partly because its call-note is much harder to imitate. 
In general appearance it is a stout and hardy bird, and may 
often be seen in great parties on the sand left by the receding 
tide, picking up its food, which consists of marine insects, 
small shells, worms, and seaweed. Sometimes flocks of forty 
or fifty individuals may be seen together, but I have myself 
only observed it either singly or in small parties of six or seven. 
Like most Waders, it is active when the receding tide leaves 
the sand-banks and mud-flats exposed, but at all times appears 
to be more lively as evening approaches. 
