SQUATAROLA HELVETICA.
Grey Plover.

Tringa Helvetica, Linn. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 250.—Gmel. Edit., vol. i. p. 676.
Vanellus Helveticus, Briss. Orn., vol. v. p. 106. tab. 10. fig. 1.—Id. 8vo, vol. ii. p. 239.
Charadrius hypomelas, Pall. Reise, vol. iu. p. 699.
Vanneau de Suisse, Buff. Pl. Enl., 853.—Ib. Hist. des Ois., tom. viii. p. 60.
Swiss Sandpiper, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. v. p. 167.—Id. Supp., p. 248.*+Ib. Gen. Hist., vol. ix. p. 270.
Tringa Squatarola, Linn. Faun. Suecica, No. 186.—Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 682.
Vanellus griseus, Briss. Orn., vol. v. p. 100. tab. 9. fig. 1.
melanogaster, Bechst.—-Temm. Man. d’Orn., vol. ii. p. 345.—Id. 2nd Edit., vol. ii. p. 547.—Horsf. in Linn.
Trans., vol. xill. p. 186.
Vanneau Pluvier, Buff. Pl. Enl., 854.—Ib. Hist. des Ois., tom. viii. p. 68.
Grey Plover and Grey Sandpiper of British authors.

Squatarola helvetica, Cuv.—List of Birds in Brit. Mus. Coll., part ill. p. 62.

 

[ wave compared specimens of this bird killed in Australia with others obtained in India, North America
and Europe, and find the whole of them identical. I have never seen an Australian specimen with the rich
black colouring of the under surface which renders Asiatic, American and Kuropean specimens so con-
spicuous in the summer or breeding-season, hence we may infer that it is only the young birds that migrate
so far to the southward as Australia; I say migrate, because I do not believe that it breeds in that country,
but that it is merely an occasional or accidental visitor. The specimens I possess are from distant parts of
the country, one being from the eastern and the other from the western colonies.

Although it rather affects the low muddy shores of the sea-coast and the mouths of large rivers, and is
seldom seen so far inland as the Golden Plover (Charadrius pluvialis), it has many habits in common with
that species, and undergoes similar changes of plumage. Its food consists of worms, various kinds of
insects and their larvee.

Little is known respecting its nidification beyond the fact that the eggs are four in number, of a light
olive blotched with black.

The two Australian specimens above referred to have :—

The crown of the head, upper surface and wings light olive, mottled with white ; primaries blackish
brown, with the basal portion of their inner webs and the apical half of their shafts white ; rump white ;
tail white, crossed by broad bars of light olive; face and all the under surface white, with numerous brown
striae, and a wash of buff on the sides of the neck and across the breast ; irides blackish brown ; bill and
feet blackish olive.

The figures represent the two birds of the natural size.