Golden Plover 5 



colouration (if we except the nestling Ringed Plover), with which we 

 are familiar among Waders. As long as the parents are uttering 

 their alarm note, so long will these little fluffy balls, only hatched 

 perhaps a few hours ago, remain squatted and motionless, with 

 their necks stretched out, their bodies buried in the golden moss, 

 so that all the lighter underparts, including the light eye streak, 

 are hidden from view. The distinct plumage of the parent focusses 

 all your attention on him ; his object is by slow degrees to wile you 

 away from the neighbourhood of his chicks, and he adopts all sorts 

 of feints and tricks, and a great pretence that he is really leading 

 you towards the nest. 



I will read you a note from my diary on this subject. I was 

 birds-nesting one summer on some hilly mooiland not very far from 

 Kirkwall, in Orkney, a district especially rich in Harriers, Merhns, 

 and Short-eared Owls. ( urlews were breeding there in large 

 numbers, also Dunlins and Golden Plover. It was too late in the 

 season to look for Plovers' eggs, and, indeed, I was not wanting any, 

 but I had long wished to secure some nestling Plovers for m}- 

 collection. On the top of one of the hills was a small, nearly flat 

 table-land, with a little swampy depression in the middle, the whole 

 carpeted with stunted heather, coarse grass and rushes, and a beautiful 

 golden moss. As I reached the top of the hill, and looked into the 

 miniature valley, two Golden Plovers at once thrust themselves 

 on mv attention. Sometimes one or other would come quite close 

 up to me as I lay down in the heather, calling continuously, some- 

 times they would disappear over the ridge for a moment, as if they 

 had no interest in my goings on ; but directly I rose up to examine 

 the ground, a Plover would reappear on the ridge, and indicate by 

 every means in his power that his nest was in some other direction. 

 I left the spot for a while, found one or two hawks' nests, and then 

 returned as silently as I could. One of the Plovers was in the basin, 

 and hurried out as fast as she could on my approach. The other, the 

 male bird, was on sentry duty, but I had taken him unexpectedly 

 from the rear ; otherwise, I make no doubt, he would have warned 

 the female, and she would have been far away from her chicks on 

 mv approach. Having marked the spot I had first seen her at, I 

 walked straight up to it, and thrust my walking stick into the ground 

 as a guide. Round this stick I walked and walked, the Plovers 

 uttering their alarm-note continuously, but nothing could I see 

 of the nestlings, though I was practically sure the}' were within a 

 few yards of me. 



After half-an-hour's fruitless searching, I called up a native, 

 who was acting as m}' guide, and we both resumed the search, 

 still without success. Finally, I determined, as the sense 

 of sight appeared useless, to try if that of touch would be 

 more effective, and going back to the stick, I dropped on 

 my hands and knees, and commenced running m\- hands over 

 the moss. About three yards away from the stick my fingers 



