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The Green Plover. Pluvialis viridis.
Numb. LXXV.
I N Bignefs it equals or exceeds the Lapwing, weighing about nine Ounces
; its Length from the Tip of the Bill to the End of the Tail is
eleven Inches; Breadth when the Wings are extended twenty four Inches;
its Colour on the Top of the Head, Neck, Shoulders, Back, and in general
the whole upper Side, is of a dark brown, thick fet with yellowiih green
Spots. If you obferve each fingle Feather, you will find the middle part
to be dark brown,inclining to a black, and the Borders or Edges round about
fpotted with a yellowiih green Colour; the Bill is ftreight and black, an
Inch long, furrowed about the Noftrils; the Neck is fhort, equal to a Lapwings
; the Breaft is of a pale brown, fpotted with a little deeper Shade
of the fame Colour ; the Belly is white, yet fome Feathers on the Sides
are faintly fpotted with brown.
Of the quill Feathers in each Wing the eleventh Ends in a blunt Point,
thofe before it running out into iharp Points on the outfide the Shaft, thofe
behind it on the infide ; all but the five next the Body are brown ; the Shafts
of the outcrmoft eight or nine are half way white ; the exterior Edges of
the fifth and thofe following it are a little white towards their Bottoms ;
the innermoft five next the Body are of the fame Colour with the Back ;
the fecondRow of Wing Feathers are brown, or duiky with white Tips;
the reft of the covert Feathers of the upper Side of the Wing are of the
fame Colour with the Back, thofe on the under Side, with the Belly; the
Tail js fhort, made up of twelve Feathers of the iame Colour with the
Back, when fpread, terminated in a circular Circumference.
The Feet and Claws are black; it wants the back Toe; and by its Note
alone it is abundantly diftinguiihed from the other Birds of its Kind; its
Legs arc long as in all other Birds which live about Waters, and bare of
Feathers for fome Space above the Knees; its Fleih is fweet and tender,
and therefore highly efteemed, and accounted a choice Diih as well in
England as beyond Sea. This Bird from its Spots, fomething refembling
thofe of a Leopard\ is called Pardalis.