Buffon endeavours to express it by the words turlui, turlui, and says it resembles the sound of a third flute, dwelling on three or four tones from a flat to a sharp. Its food consists chiefly of worms. It is said to be good eating when young, the flesh of the old ones is hard, black, and dry. Mr. White mentions them as frequenting the district of Selborne, in Hampshire. He says, that the young run immediately from the nest almost as soon as they are excluded, like partridges; that the dam leads them to some stony field where they bask, skulking among the stones, which they resemble so nearly in colour as not easily to be discovered.
Birds of this kind are migratory; they arrive in April, live with us all the spring and summer, and at the beginning of autumn prepare to take leave, by getting together in flocks: it is supposed that they retire to Spain, and frequent the sheep-walks with which that country abounds.
The Golden Plover, Yellow Plover. (Charadrius pluvialis, Linn.; Le Pluvier doré, Buff.)—The size of the turtle; bill dusky; eyes dark; all the upper parts of the plumage are marked with bright yellow spots upon a dark brown ground; the fore part of the neck and breast are the same, but much paler; the belly is almost white; the quills are dusky; the tail is marked with dusky and yellow bars; the legs are black. Birds of this species vary very much from each other; in some which we have had the breast was marked with black and white; in others it was almost black; but whether this difference arose from age or sex we are at a loss to determine.
The golden plover is common in this country and all the northern parts of Europe; it is very numerous in various parts of America, from Hudson’s Bay as far as Carolina, migrating from one place to another, according to the seasons. It breeds on high and heathy mountains; the female lays four eggs, of a pale olive colour, variegated with blackish spots. They fly in small flocks, and make a shrill whistling noise, by an imitation of which they are sometimes enticed within gun shot.
The male and female do not differ from each other. In young birds the yellow spots are not very distinguishable, as the plumage inclines more to grey.
The Grey Plover. (Tringa squaturola, Linn.; Le Vanneau Pluvier, Buff.)—The length of this bird is about twelve inches; its bill is black; the head, back, and wing coverts, are of a dusky brown, edged with greenish ash-colour, and some with white; the cheeks and throat are white, marked with oblong dusky spots; the belly, sides, and rump, are white: the sides are marked with a few dusky spots; the outer webs of the quills are black; the lower parts of the inner webs of the first four are white; the tail is marked with alternate bars of black and white; the legs are of a dull green; the hind toe is small. In the Planches Enluminées this bird is represented with eyes of an orange colour; there is likewise a dusky line extending from the bill underneath each eye, and a white one above it.
We have placed this bird with the plovers, as agreeing with them in every other respect but that of having a very small hind toe; but this is so slight a difference as not to render it necessary to exclude it from a place in the plover family, to which it evidently belongs. The grey plover is not very common in Britain; it appears sometimes in small flocks on the sea coasts. It is somewhat larger than the golden plover. Its flesh is said to be very delicate.
Long-legged Plover, Long-shanks, or Long-leg. (Charadrius himantopus, Linn. L’Echasse, Buff.)—Its slender black bill is two inches and a half long, from the tip of which to the end of the tail it measures only about thirteen inches, but to the toes a foot and a half; the wings are long, measuring from tip to tip twenty-nine inches; irides red; the crown of the head, back, and wings, a glossy black; tail light grey, except the two outside feathers, which are white, as are all the other parts of its plumage, except a few dusky spots on the back of the neck. Its long, weak, and disproportionate legs are of a blood red, and measure from the foot to the upper naked part of the thigh about eight inches; the toes are short, and the outer and middle ones are connected by a membrane at the base.
Ornithologists mention only a few instances of this singular looking species having been met with in Great Britain, but it is common in other countries.
Latham says it is common in Egypt, being found there in the marshes in October; its food is said to consist principally of flies. It is likewise plentiful about the salt lakes, and is often seen on the shores of the Caspian Sea, as well as by the rivers which empty themselves into it, and in the southern deserts of Independent Tartary. We have also seen it on Chinese paintings, and it is known at Madras in the East Indies. It is also often met with in the warmer parts of America; is sometimes seen as far north as Connecticut, and also in Jamaica.