42 
GREY PLOVER. 
They feed morning and evening, and roost during the 
daytime, either standing or crouching down. Their food 
consists of marine insects, beetles, caterpillars, and worms, 
the smaller shell-fish, and the berries of the whortle-berry 
and the black-berried heath. 
The note Meyer likens to the word ‘tlewee,’ or ‘gleewee.’ 
They fly low, and very quickly, and have a habit of opening 
the wings before starting, which in summer shews the jet 
black breast to advantage. 
The eggs are dark green, spotted irregularly with different 
shades of brown; the spots crowded and confluent round the 
obtuse end. 
Male; weight, about seven ounces; length, eleven inches 
and a half, or over; bill, black; iris, very dark brown; over 
the eye is a white streak. Forehead, white or grey, in winter „ 
white spotted with brown and grey; sides of the head, white, 
with a few dusky lines; crown and neck on the back, grey, 
the former less, the latter more, spotted with dusky, the 
shafts black; nape, brown, black, and white; in the winter 
all dusky with grey edges and tips to the feathers. Chin, 
throat, neck in front, and breast, black in summer; the latter 
white on the sides, but all in winter are spotted with brown 
and grey, or yellowish white, the latter colours forming angular 
marks on the feathers; the breast below, white, in winter 
dull white. The back has the feathers black, widely tipped 
with greyish white or white; in winter dusky, with grey 
edges and tips to the feathers. 
The wings, about two feet in expanse, have the first quill 
feather not quite half an inch longer than the second, and 
the longest in the wing; greater andTesser wing coverts, black, 
all barred on the tips with white or greyish white; primaries, 
dusky, the shafts white. Montagu adds, The inner webs more 
or less white, as well as the shafts; from the fifth some white 
begins to appear on the outer web down the shaft, which 
increases in the next, and from the seventh to the tenth the 
whole of the outer web is white except on the point.’ 
Secondaries, dusky; tertiaries, dusky, barred with white, the 
latter on the tips of the feathers. Greater and lesser under 
wing coverts, white; tail, white, barred with numerous greyish 
black bars; in winter white, barred with brown, and tipped 
with yellowish brown; upper tail coverts, black and white, 
the latter on the tips, white in winter; under tail coverts, white; 
legs, toes, the hinder one of which is very small, only 
