124 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



The eggs vary in ground-colour from greyish-buff to ochraceous- 

 buff, with sometimes the faintest possible tinge of olive, and are 

 blotched and spotted with rich dark brown, and with underlying 

 markings of inky-grey. The surface -markings are generally 

 large, concealing a large portion of the ground-colour, and are 

 often confluent, especially on the larger end of the egg. Some 

 eggs have the spots much larger than others, but on most of them 

 they are pretty evenly distributed over the entire surface. The 

 underlying spots are small and remarkably few in number. The 

 eggs vary considerably in shape, some being almost as pointed at 

 the large end as at the small, whilst others are pear-shaped ; they 

 vary in length from 1*75 to 15 inch, and in breadth from 1*17 to 

 l'l inch. The only eggs of a British bird at all likely to be con- 

 fused with those of the Dotterel are certain varieties of those of 

 the Arctic Tern, some of which are almost indistinguishable from 

 those of the Dotterel, but the latter have fewer and smaller 

 underlying markings. 



THE GOLDEN PLOVER. 

 (Charadrius pluvia lis.) 



Plate 39, Figs. 1, 3. 



The Golden Plover is very local in England during the breeding 

 season, south of Derbyshire. It is said to breed in the extreme 

 south-west of England and in several localities in Wales, but its 

 true home is on the moors and mountains of Scotland and Ireland. 

 In Europe, the chief breeding-places of the Golden Plover are the 

 fjelds of Norway and the tundras of Russia and Siberia, as far east 

 as the valley of the Yenisei ; it also breeds sparingly on similar 

 ground as far south as the moors of Holland, Belgium and North 

 Germany. 



The nest is rather larger, deeper and better made than that of 

 the Lapwing, and is composed of bits of dry herbage and scraps 

 of heath and moss, arranged in a small depression in the ground 

 or on the top of a tuft, or in a clump of cotton-grass. 



The eggs are four in number, and are very beautiful. They 

 vary in ground-colour from pale buff to rich buff, with occasionally 

 a tinge of olive, and are spotted and blotched with rich purplish- 

 brown and brownish-black. The underlying markings are com- 



