60 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[March 1, 1870. 



both birds took wing. Soon we saw a third and 

 a fourth, and picking up the almost forgotten 

 gun, began to think of securing one or two speci- 

 mens for closer examination. This we had no diffi- 

 culty in doing, for the birds were by no means wild. 

 We concluded from their actions, and from the early 

 date, that they had not yet commenced to nest ; and 

 this conclusion was strengthened by the fact that 

 we searched a large tract of ground for more than 

 three hours without finding any eggs. 



Cowper in his " Winter Walk at Noon," says :— 



" There is in souls a sympathy with sounds, 

 And as the mind is pitch'd, the ear is pleased 

 With melting airs and martial, brisk or grave ; 

 Some chord in unison with what we hear 

 Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies." 



How often have we proved the truth of this ! 



Had we remained later on the moor referred to, 

 we should in all probability have been rewarded by 

 finding the eggs, since we have been assured that 

 the Golden Plover breeds there annually. The nest 



Fig. 57. The Goloex Plover (Chamdrius ph/uictlis). 



The two specimens which we carried home had not 

 quite assumed their full summer dress, there being 

 still a few white feathers cropping out upon the 

 breast and belly. The stomachs of both contained 

 a number of little shining beetles, and a few small 

 univalves, of which we could not then determine the 

 species. 



At this time of year, May, the whistle of the 

 Golden Plover seemed unceasing, and proceeded 

 from the birds while on the ground ; but in the 

 winter we have never remarked these birds to call 

 much except when disturbed and on the wing. 

 Their plaintive note upon a lonely moor or moun- 

 tain-side has something indescribably wild and 

 pleasurable about it, and we never hear it without 

 feeling, like Burns, an elevation of soul like the 

 enthusiasm of devotion or poetry. 



is a very slight affair, not unlike that of the' Peewit, 

 and the eggs also are very similar to the Peewit's 

 eggs, although larger and more richly coloured. 



The young when first hatched are remarkably 

 pretty little things, being powdered over, as it were, 

 with golden yellow upon a brown and grey ground- 

 colour. They run as soon as they leave the shell, 

 and fly well by the end of July. The family parties 

 then'unite in August, and begin to form those dense 

 flocks to which we have already referred, and which 

 are looked for in winter with such eagerness by 

 sportsmen in the south. 



Varieties oe Sparrow.— A few mouths ago a 

 black variety of the common House Sparrow was 

 killed near here, and a week or two ago one of a 

 uniform fawn-colour.— G. B. C, Ithigwood. 



