GOLDEN PLOVER. 273 



table, and in the L'Estrange " Household Book " for 1520, 

 the price of Golden Plovers appears to have been as high as 

 about 2d. each. 



The Golden Plover is found during summer, breeding on 

 the high hills and swampy grounds of Great Britain and 

 Ireland. In England it is believed to breed sparingly in 

 Devonshire, and perhaps in Somerset, and it is known to do 

 so in Breconshire and some other counties of Wales and 

 its borders. From Derbyshire onwards it becomes more 

 abundant as a nesting species, and in Scotland it is generally 

 distributed ; being especially numerous in Sutherlandshire. 

 It is a familiar bird on the moors of the Orkney and 

 Shetland Islands, and in the Hebrides the numbers which 

 descend to the sandy pastures and shores are said by 

 Macgillivray to be astonishing. Throughout Ireland it is 

 to be found breeding in suitable localities ; and early in 

 autumn enormous flocks or ' stands ' visit the lowlands and 

 coasts of that island. Sir R. Payne-Gallweysays that it is 

 the universal custom of the Irish fowler to call the Golden 

 Plover the ' Grey,' whilst the true Grey Plover is frequently 

 alluded to as the ' White Plover ' or ' Sea-Cock.'* The 

 largest assemblages on the coast are to be witnessed at the 

 time when the moonlight enables them to feed at night. 



The Golden Plover lays four eggs, w^hich are large in 

 proportion to the size of the bird, and very handsome : of a 

 yellowish stone-colour, blotched and spotted with brownish- 

 black, measuring 2 by 1-4 in. About the middle of May, in 

 this country, but earlier in some parts of the Continent, 

 the females begin to lay, making but little artificial nest, 

 a small depression in the ground amidst the heath being 

 generally taken advantage of, and lined with a few^ dry 

 fibres and stems of grass. The male sometimes takes part 

 in the duties of incubation, for Mr. R. CoUett shot one from 

 four eggs on the 19th June, 1872, in the valley of the 

 Maalselv, in Norway, the female not being observed. The 

 young, when excluded, are covered with a beautiful parti- 

 coloured down of orange- tinted yellow and brown ; they quit 



• The Fowler in Ireland, p. 174. 

 VOL. III. N N 



