THE PLOVER. 



bread or fish. He began to eat almost anything — fish, frogs, or insects ; and 

 if nothing else was to be had, he would eat barley with the duck's. 



He became a very great favourite, but was at last killed by a rat, after 

 having been two years in captivity. 



The curlew is tbund on all the high moors and heaths from one end of 

 the kingdom to the other, but nests are more numerous in Scotland than 

 in England. In Turkey and Holland they are found all the year round. 



It is thought that the birds that pass the winter in the south of England 

 spend the summer on the Grampian Hills. But their comings and goings 

 may be merely from the hills to the sea-shore and back again, after the 

 custom of the plovers and the lapwings. 



The family of curlews are dispersed all over Europe and Asia, and 

 in Africa extend to the Cape of Good Hope, but they are not known in 



AmCl■i'"'^- 



T H E PLOVER. 



Plovers have their home on dry and sandy plains or heaths, or on the 

 sea-shore where it is lonely and unsheltered. 



Their feet are long and slender, and adapted for running very fast indeed. 

 The toes are short, and the hind toe is entirely wanting. The head is thick, 

 with large dark eyes placed rather far back ; and the bill is about the length 

 of the head, the outer half slightly notched, a little like that of the pigeon. 



The most beautiful of all the tribe is the bird in the picture, that is 

 called the " golden plover," and has a costume of brownish black, spotted 

 round with yellow. The wings are a chocolate brown ; and the fore part of 

 the breast is black grey, bordered with white. 



The golden plovers live in every part of Britain during the winter. In 

 open weather they are scattered about on plains or ploughed fields. But 

 when the frost seals up the ground, they betake themselves to the beach, 

 and run about on the sand, picking up what they can find, and now and then 

 wade a little into the sea. Thus, for a season, they contrive to gain a liveli- 

 hood. But when spring comes, they seem to remember their native moors 

 and commons, and then they gather in straggling flocks, and fly away in thar 



N 



