EARLY SPRING OX THE MOORS 27 



ways : First, by their passing - through lowlands and 

 arable country, far from moorland, and uncongenial to 

 their kind, as at Silksworth, county Durham, where the 

 author lived many years, and where golden plovers might 

 be seen passing in February, but at no other season. 

 About the same date you might spring three or four 

 snipe from some ploughed field or stubble, spots which, 

 at other times, never held a snipe. 



These passing plovers have already commenced the 

 change to spring plumage. A single black feather, 

 perhaps two, may be seen just showing through the 

 white ; but even if not so visible, some will be found 

 concealed beneath the older white plumage on raising 

 the latter with a knitting-needle. These are new feathers, 

 growing, showing that this partial moult is a true one : 

 and not a change in the colour of existing feathers. 



The second means of recognising this section is that, 

 on arrival within the moorland area, they spread them- 

 selves over the lower grounds - — the river- valleys and 

 haughs — reinforcing those plovers which have been there 

 all winter : but which latter are still pure white below. 

 Here both sections remain, in packs and large flights, 

 up to the date of their final departure for Northern 

 Europe, at the end of April or early in May. 



Those golden plovers which come here to breed, arrive 

 later than the above section. Withdrawing from their 

 winter resorts in Southern Europe towards the end of 

 February, they have, within a few days of that date, 

 distributed themselves in pairs all over the moors, going 

 direct to the spots where they intend to nest. But these, 

 as just stated, are in pairs (not packs), and, moreover, 

 they are on the high ground. By the middle of March, 

 these breeding pairs are all localised on the higher moors : 



