34 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
that peculiar movement to the tail feathers for which this species 
is noted. The flight of the Spotted Tatler is very uneven, 
seldom being seen flying in a straight line to any distance, and 
usually performs its aerial gambols at a short distance above the 
surface. When wounded in the wing, it takes to the brook, 
and swims under water with considerable swiftness. In pairs, 
or small parties, it takes possession of the muddy margins of 
all our water courses, from which it makes excursions to the 
adjoining fields, sometimes alighting on the fence-rails, &c. 
“ Being exclusive in its habits, it never courts the society of 
other species, though it is not unfrequent that we see the intru¬ 
sive Semipalmated Sandpiper sharing with it the produce of its 
feeding grounds.” 
PLOVERS. 
No. 1 . Black-Bellied Plover — Vulgo, Bull-Headed Plovet. 
Charadrius Helveticus; Linn. 
Black-bellied Plover, Charadrius helveticus, Wils. Amer. Om. Charadriua 
helveticus, Bonap. Syn. Gray Lapwing, Vanellus melanogaster, Sw. & 
Rich. Black-bellied or Swiss Plover, Nutt. Man. Black-bellied Plover, 
Charadrius helveticus, Aud. Orn. Biog. 
" Specific Character .—Bill stout, along the gap one inch and 
five-sixteenths, length of tarsi one inch and five-eighths. Adult 
male with the bill black, strong, shorter than the head; cheeks, 
loral space, throat, fore-neck, breast, with a large portion of the 
abdomen black ; hind part of the abdomen and flanks white ; 
forehead, with a broad band passing down the sides of the neck 
and breast, white ; crown, occiput, and hind-neck grayish-white, 
spotted with dusky; upper parts blackish-brown, the feathers 
broadly tipped with white ; eye encircled with white ; tail and 
upper tail coverts white, barred with black—the former tipped 
with white ; lower tail coverts white, the outer feathers spotted 
with black; primaries and their coverts blackish-brown, the 
