Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/268

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In this extensive group the feet are long and slender, adapted for swift running; the toes comparatively short, and the hind one either wanting, or in the few cases where present, so small as to be little more than rudimentary; the wings are long and pointed, and the flight rapid and powerful. Plovers live chiefly on sandy and unsheltered shores, or on dry, exposed commons; they associate in flocks, run with great swiftness, and fly in great circles, somewhat like pigeons,



wheeling round at no great height, with loud piping cries. Their head is thick, with large dark eyes, placed far back; the beak is short, the basal half soft and compressed, the outer half abruptly swollen, and often slightly notched, so as to