Adult Male and Female, in their Spring or Nuptial Plumage.— Space between the eye and the bill, throat, sides and front of the neck, middle of the breast, belly, and sides, deep black ; front, a large band above the eyes, lateral parts of the neck, side of the breast, thighs, and abdomen, pure white ; nape variegated with brown, black, and white ; occiput, back, scapulars, and coverts of the wings, deep black ; all the feathers of these parts terminated by a large apace of pure white; large white spots on the greatest of the wing-coverts and on the scapulars; oblique black bands on the lower tail-coverts; feathers of the middle of the tail striped with white and black.
The young before the moult resemble more or less the adult birds and the young in winter ; the front, space above the eye, sides of the neck, and sides are variegated with larger but paler spots ; upper parts of a bright-gray tint varied with whitish, also a little whitish at the extremity of the quills; transverse bands of the tail gray., (Temm.) In the first of these states of plumage the bird is the Triage Squatarola, GmeL ; Le Vanneau Varid, Buff.; and Gray Sandpiper, Lath. (` Syn.') In the second it is the Vanellus ntelanogaster, Bech. ; Tringa Helvetica, Gmel. : Charadrius apricarius, Wile. ; Le Vanneau Suisse, Buff. ; Swiss Sandpiper, Lath. ; and Schwarzbauchiger Kiebiz, Meyer.
The young before the moult are Tringa Squatarola, var., Gmel. ; Le Vanneau Pluvier, and Vanneau Gris, BufE ; Gray Sandpiper, Lath. ; and Schwarzbauchiger Kiebiz im Herbstkleide, Meyer.
M. Temminck, who gives these synonyms, remarks in his 'Manuel,' that at the two epochs of the moult, individuals are found which have the deep black of the lower parts sprinkled with some white feathers, or when the white predominates it is variegated with some black feathers. The birds in winter plumage and the young may, he observes, be easily distinguished from those of the Golden Plover, first by the presence of the posterior toe, and secondly by the long black feathers which are found inside of the wings, near the body ; the rest of the plumage differs so little at these epochs, that one might be easily mistaken.
This species is the Charadrius hypamelas of Wagler, and the Gray Squatarole of Shaw. It appears to be the Pluvier Gris of Belon, and in the ' Portraits d'Oyseaux,' &c., is the following loyal quatrain under the figure of the bird :— "De nuict seulet, de Jour en compagnic, Va le Pluvier snyvant son appelleur. Par In voit-on, (Fie c'est bien le meilleur, Qn'une gent soft par un roy gouvernee." M. Temminck, who, in the fourth part of his Manuel' (1840), protests against the generic) separation of this form, not without a passing but sweeping censure on "touter lea autres coupes nou velles," adds to the synonyms Squatarola varia et Helvetica, Brehm. ;
Kiebiz Regenpfcifer, Naum; Pivieressa, Savi ; and Sprackling Vipa, Nils.
In Britain, where this bird is not numerous, and principally known as a migratory species, it is found on the coast " in oozy bays, or at the mouths of rivers," where it feeds upon worms, marine crustaceans, &c. The bird runs well, and its whistle is like that of the Golden Plover, but not so shrilL If killed in good season it is delicidua for the table. Tho neat is of the most rude construction. A shallow depression in the earth is lined with a few pieces of dried bents or straw, and there four eggs generally, which are oil-green blotched with black, are deposited. According to Wilson and Nuttall, this Plover has often in the temperate parts of the United States two broods in a season, though it has only one in Massachusetts, where their nests are of rare occurrence. During the summer both young and old feed much upon various kinds of berries, particularly those of the early bramble, called dew-berries, and their flesh is then highly esteemed. About the last week in August they repair with their young to the borders of the sea-coast, where they assemble in great numbers, feeding on small shell-fish, shrimps, and other small marine animals. Grasshoppers and other insects that abound in the fields arc also eaten by them. " They are," says Nuttall, " extremely shy and watchful, uttering a loud rather plaintive whistling note as they fly high and circling iu the air, and are so often noisy, particularly in the breeding season, as to have acquired among many of the gunners along the coast the name of the Black-Bellied Killdeer. They usually linger round the seacoast in the Middle States till the commencement of November, when the frosts beginning sensibly to diminish their prospect of subsistence, they instinctively move off towards the south, proceeding probably at this time under the shade of twilight, as moving flocks are nowhere, as far as I can learn, seen by day. About the middle of September, in the marshes of Chelsea (Mass.) contiguous to the beach, they sometimes assemble at daybreak in flocks of more than a thousand individuals together, and soon after disperse them selves in companies on the ahores, to feed upon the small shell-fish and marine insects (Crustacea). This crowding instinct takes place a short time previous to their general migration southward." (` Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada.') The Gray Plover is found in all the temperate countries of Europe.