Part 96

“The Golden Plover is in many parts of Scotland, but especially in the Northern Highlands, and in the Hebrides, a very common bird. When the weather begins to improve towards the end of spring, these birds may be seen flying over the shores or fields in their vicinity, at a great height, in loose flocks, which now extend into a wide front, now form irregular angular lines, move with a quiet and regular flight, frequently emitting their peculiar soft notes, and at times uttering a singular cry, somewhat resembling the syllables courlie-wee. These flocks are leaving their winter haunts and returning to the inland moors, over which they disperse in pairs. In the beginning of May, should you traverse one of the dreary heaths, you will often hear the plaintive cry of the Plover, mingling, perhaps, with the feeble cheep of the Dunlin, or the loud scream of the Curlew. Before you have advanced to any considerable distance, there may come up and alight on some mossy knoll beside you, a male, clad in his beautiful summer vesture of black and green. You may approach him within ten paces if you are inclined, and in some districts it would be easy for one to shoot many dozens of them in a day at this season. After incubation has commenced, the females seldom make their appearance on such occasions. Whether the males assist their mates at that time or not, they certainly do not forsake them. The nest is a slight hollow in a tuft of moss, or on a dry place among the heath, irregularly strewed with fragments of withered plants. The eggs, of which the full number is four, are placed, as usual in this genus, with their small ends together. They are much larger and more pointed than those of the Lapwing, being at an average two inches and one-twelfth in length, and an inch and a-half in their greatest transverse diameter. The shell is thin and smooth, of a light greyish-yellow or cream-colour, irregularly spotted, dotted and patched with dark brown, and sometimes having a few light purple spots interspersed, the markings larger towards the broadest part. The young leave the nest immediately after they burst the shell, and conceal themselves by lying flat on the ground. At this period, the female evinces the greatest anxiety for their safety, and will occasionally feign lameness to entice the intruder to pursue her. I have several times seen one fly off to a considerable distance, alight in a conspicuous place, and tumble about as if in the agonies of death, her wings flapping as if they had been fractured or dislocated. The eggs are delicious, and the young birds when fledged not less so.

“When the young are able to fly, the Plovers collect into flocks, but remain on the moors until the commencement of winter, when they advance towards the pasture lands, and in severe weather betake themselves to the low grounds near the shores. During continued frosts, they feed on the sands and rocky shores at low water, and in general during the winter remain at no great distance from the sea.

“When a flock alights at this season on a field, the individuals disperse, run about with great activity, and pick up their food. Sometimes one finds them so tame that he can approach within fifteen yards, and I have often walked round a flock several times in order to force them together before shooting. In windy weather they often rest by lying flat on the ground, and I have reason to think that at night this is their general practice. In the Hebrides I have often gone to shoot them at night by moonlight, when they seemed as actively engaged as by day, which was also the case with the Snipes; but I seldom succeeded in my object, it being extremely difficult to estimate distances at night. The numbers that at this season frequent the sandy pastures and shores of the Outer Hebrides is astonishing.

“The Golden Plover, although occasionally addicted to wading, evidently prefers dry ground, in which respect it differs essentially in habits from the Totani and Limosæ. It frequently probes the moist sands, and in summer the dry cow dung on the moors and upland pastures is seen perforated by its bill. It affords delicious eating, and in my opinion is scarcely inferior in this respect to the Woodcock.”

CHARADRIUS PLUVIALIS, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 254.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 740.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States, p. 297.

GOLDEN PLOVER, CHARADRIUS PLUVIALIS, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. vii. p. 71. pl. 59. fig. 5., Winter.—Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 16.

Adult Male in Spring. Plate CCC. Fig. 1.

Bill shorter than the head, straight, subcylindrical. Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight and slightly sloping for two-thirds of its length, then bulging a little and curving to the tip, which is rather acute, the sides flat and sloping at the base, convex towards the end, where the edges are sharp and inclinate. Nasal groove extended along two-thirds of the mandible, filled with a bare membrane; nostrils basal, linear, in the lower part of the membrane, open and pervious. Lower mandible with the angle long, narrow, but rounded, the sides at the base sloping outwards and flat, the dorsal line ascending and slightly convex, the edges sharp and involute towards the narrow tip.

Head of moderate size, oblong, rather compressed, the forehead rounded. Eyes large. Neck rather short. Body ovate, rather full. Wings long. Feet rather long, slender; tibia bare for a considerable space; tarsus rather compressed, covered all round with reticulated hexagonal scales; toes slender; the hind toe wanting; third or middle toe longest, fourth considerably longer than the second, all scutellate above and marginate, the outer connected with the middle toe by a membrane as far as the second joint; claws small, compressed, slightly arched, slender but obtuse at the end, the inner edge of the middle claw dilated.

Plumage soft, blended, slightly glossed, the feathers rounded. Wings long and pointed; primary quills tapering, the first longest, the second a little shorter, the rest rapidly graduated; outer secondaries short, broad, obliquely rounded, inner tapering and elongated. Tail rather short, rounded, of twelve rounded feathers.

Bill black. Iris brown. Feet bluish-grey. The upper part of the head, the fore part of the back, and the scapulars are beautifully variegated with brownish-black and bright yellow, the latter in spots along the edges of the feathers. The hind part of the back greyish-brown, variegated with yellow of a duller tint; the tail brown, barred with white. The wings are hair-brown, the smaller coverts spotted with yellowish-white, the primary coverts and secondaries tipped with white. The inner secondaries like the scapulars. Part of the forehead, the loral space, a band over the eye, and the throat, are greyish-white; the sides of the neck and body variegated with brown, dull white and yellowish. The breast and a broad band down the fore-neck, are brownish-black, the latter margined on each side with white. Axillar feathers, and lower tail-coverts white.

Length to end of tail 10-1/2 inches, to end of wings 10-1/4, to end of claws 11-1/2; extent of wings 22-3/8; wing from flexure 7; tail 3-2/12; bill along the back 11/12, along the edge of lower mandible 1-2/12; bare part of tibia 8/12; tarsus 1-7/12; middle toe 1-1/12, its claw 4/12. Weight 5-1/2 oz.

Adult in winter. Plate CCC. Fig. 2.

The black on the lower parts is peculiar to the breeding season; and after the autumnal moult, they become of a light greyish colour, spotted and streaked with deep grey. In other respects the plumage is similar to that described above.

Length to end of tail 10-3/4, to end of claws 11-7/8; extent of wings 22-5/8. Weight 4-1/2 oz.

Light coloured variety. Plate CCC. Fig. 3.

Bill and feet greyish-blue. Iris deep brown. Upper part of head and back mottled with black and pale yellow; wing-coverts greyish, with white and dusky spots, as are the sides of the head and the throat; a broad band of white over the eye; fore part of neck pale grey, fading into pale cream colour and white; the breast and fore-neck with large spots of black.

This individual was killed in the breeding season.

REMARKS ON THE FORM OF THE TOES OF BIRDS.

Although naturalists have laboured, more especially since the time of the great LINNÆUS, who gave an impulse to the study of natural history unparalleled in that of any other science, to make us acquainted with animals of every class; and although much has been done by them in ornithology in particular, it requires little knowledge to be enabled to say with truth that a great deal more remains to be done. To take an apparently trivial example, let us look to the tips of the toes of birds, and we shall no doubt find much that is curious, and much that has been entirely overlooked. The examination of those parts was suggested to me by the following occurrence.

On the 21st of March 1816, while I was residing at Henderson in Kentucky, great flocks of Golden Plovers happening to be passing from their winter toward their summer haunts, I procured a good number of them. While engaged in drawing a fine specimen, I observed something beneath the claws, which induced me to look more particularly to that part of the toes, when I found there what might be called a second but smaller claw, equally horny with the part properly so called. I examined several others, and, finding them all alike in this respect, I mentioned the circumstance to a friend, who agreed with me in thinking it very curious. Since that period I have generally, on procuring a bird of any kind, looked to its toes, and I have found many species, both of the genus Charadrius and of other Grallæ, similarly supplied with double claws.

Although I use this term, however, let it not be supposed that I consider the parts in question as really subsidiary or secondary claws; for as they are not furnished with a central bone, or process either from the last phalanx or that next to it, they cannot be truly considered as such, however much they may sometimes resemble them.

But, in order to explain to you what I mean, let us take a general view of the subject. If we examine the foot of any common land bird, a domestic fowl for example, we observe that the extremity of its toes under the nail are rounded, and covered with quincuncial papillæ, generally flattened. The extreme degree of this rounded form is seen in the Eagles and Hawks, of which the end of the toe projects beneath the claw, having the appearance of a large round knob or rather pad. It is not, however, my intention at present to describe the structure of this part in the land birds. I may however remark, that in them, as well as in the others, the examination of the parts in question will materially aid in limiting the number of merely nominal species, by disclosing an identity of form, as well as in separating species that have been confounded, by shewing a diversity, as I have had occasion to observe, in several species of both kinds.

In the aquatic tribes numerous remarkable modifications are observed. Beginning with those which have the extremity of the toe largest and most rounded, we find that the Geese, Ducks, and Gulls, supply good examples. Thus in Larus marinus, the protuberance beneath the claw is rounded, and covered with small rounded and flattened papillæ, of which there is a semicircular terminal series of a larger size, as is represented by fig. 1.

The Pelicans and Gannets are similar in this respect to the Gulls, as are the Cormorants, which, however, have the terminal pad projecting and more pointed. In the Guillemots, also, it is rounded, with small distinct rounded scales. In the Frigate Bird, in which the webs are short, and do not modify the pads, the terminal scales are similar to those of the Gulls. In the genus Lestris, they are smaller, and obscured by the webs, their papillæ smaller and more pointed. In the Terns, they are similar to those of the Gulls, but narrower, and with the papillæ large. In Phaeton æthereus, the webs appear to obliterate the terminal papillæ, which are very small. In all these, the extremities of the toes are more or less rounded, and terminated just beneath the claw by a semicircular series of scales larger than those immediately behind.

In the Auks, however, there is a large scale or plate, on the inner side of the middle toe, and then a series of narrow scales. In Mormon glacialis, of which the end of the middle toe is represented by fig. 2, there is a single much recurved narrow horny plate, behind which is a narrow series of oblong scales. In the genus Puffinus, there is also a single short rounded terminal scale or plate.

The Colymbi or Divers have the end of the toe very narrow and flat, with a single small rounded terminal plate, and numerous small scales behind it. These birds have the claws depressed, a form which shews its extreme development in the Grebes. Of the extremity of the middle toe of one of these, Podiceps cristatus, fig. 3. is a representation. Here the claw is almost quite flat, and the end of the toe beneath it is not elevated or rounded as in almost all the other genera, but perfectly depressed, and having its outline concave, but still, as usual, with a series of large scales.

If we now look to the Grallæ, we shall find similar modifications. Fig. 4 represents the lower surface, and the lateral aspect of the extremity of the middle toe of Ardea rufescens, which agrees, in a general point of view, with that of the other species of the genus, as well as with that of the Cranes. The pad here is rounded, and terminated by a semicircle of larger scales. In the genera Numenius and Limosa, the arrangement is similar, the terminal scales being much smaller in the latter than in the former, and two of the lateral scales enlarged. In the genera Tringa, Scolopax and Gallinula, the arrangement is similar. All these genera exhibit more or less of the rounded form, terminated by a series of larger scales.