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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PIG-POL |
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PLOVER , a bird whose name (Fr. pluvier, O. Fr. plovier) doubtless has its origin in the Latin pluvia, rain (as witness the German equivalent Regenpfeifer, rain-fifer). P. Belon (1555) says that the name Pluvier is bestowed " pour ce qu'on le prend mieux en temps pluvieux qu'en nulle autre saison," which is not in accordance with modern observation, for in rainy
recent
spring and autumn the coasts of the more temperate parts of each continent, and generally retiring farther southward in winterexamples not unfrequently reaching Cape Colony, Ceylon, Australia and even Tasmania. Charadrius pluvialis has a much narrower distribution, though where it occurs it is much more numerous. Its breeding quarters do not extend farther than from Iceland to western Siberia, but include the more elevated tracts in the British Islands, whence in autumn it spreads itself, often in immense flocks, over the cultivated districts if the fields be sufficiently open. Here some will remain so long as the absence of frost or snow permits, but the majority make for the Mediterranean basin, or the countries beyond, in which to winter; and stragglers find their way to the southern extremity of Africa. Two other cognate forms, C. virginicus and C. fulvus, respectively represent C. pluvialis in America and eastern Asia, where they are also known by the same English name. The discrimination of these two birds from one another requires a very acute eye,' but both are easily distinguished from their European ally by their smaller size, their greyish-brown axillary feathers, and their proportionally longer..., -; se- .r--- American Steam Plough, 3o ft. at a time, are frequently seen. On smaller areas petrol motors with one or more ploughs attached are sometimes used. There is a large variety of ploughs which differ in their purpose from the ordinary plough.The ridging plough is an implement with a mould-board on each side, terminating in front in a flat point, and used for moulding up potatoes, and for throwing up the ridge
But for this really unimportant distinction both birds could doubtless have been kept by ornithologists in the same genus, for they agree in most other structural characters. 2 Schlegel (Miss. Pays-Bas, Cursores, p. 53) states that in some examples it seems impossible to determine the form to which they belong; but ordinarily American specimens are rather larger and stouter, and have shorter toes than those from Asia. change of colour, greatly altering their appearance and equally affecting both sexes. In spring or early summer nearly the whole of the lower plumage from the chin to the vent, which during winter has been nearly pure white, becomes deep black. A corresponding alteration is at the same season observable in the upper plumage.Though the birds just spoken of are those most emphatically entitled to be called plovers, the group of ringed plovers (see KILLDEER and LAPWING), with its allies, has, according to usage, hardly less claim to the name, which is also extended to some other more distant forms that can here have only the briefest notice. Among them one of the most remarkable is the " Zickzack " (so-called from its cry)the apoxIXos of Herodotus (see HUMMING-BIRD), the Pluvianus or Hyas aegyptius of ornithologists, celebrated for the services it is said to render to the crocodilea small bird whose plumage of delicate lavender
CURLEW
Oyster
lodge
Though the various forms here spoken of as plovers are almost certainly closely allied, they must be regarded as constituting a very indefinite group, for hardly any strong line of demarcation can be drawn
recent
For " plovers' eggs " see LAPWING. (A. N.) End of Article: PLOVER If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/PIG_POL/PLOVER.html"> PLOVER </a> |
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