SPRING 



plover. Most of its remaining breeding-places are on the 

 chalk hills of the southern and eastern counties, where it is 

 found in company with the wheatear. Later in the season 

 it is often a noisy bird by night ; but by day it is always 

 silent, and usually attracts notice by shyly skimming over a 

 heave of the down out of sight of the intruder on its solitudes. 

 Occasionally it can be seen swiftly running with outstretched 

 neck along the slopes strewn with flints, or the chalky upland 

 cornfields ; and sometimes it stands erect and on the watch, 

 when its large head and eye make it easily distinguish- 

 able. This large eye is 

 a mark of its nocturnal 

 habits, as in the case of 

 the owls. Like the chiff- 

 chaff, it usually winters in 

 the Spanish Peninsula, 

 Morocco, and other Medi- 

 terranean lands, but occa- 

 sionally remains in Britain. 

 The landrail and the 

 blackcap are also met with now and then in winter, and 

 it is rather remarkable that they do not appear now and then 

 in March like the stone-curlew. Both pass the winter in 

 North Africa and the Mediterranean basin, but do not 

 return to Britain until about the middle of April, the black- 

 cap being a little the earlier. The way in which these 

 normally migratory species are able now and then to sustain 

 life through part or all of the winter in England is one of 

 the most striking signs of the mildness of our climate. 

 Swallows and martins sometimes attempt to do the same ; 

 they take up their quarters in some sunny and sheltered 

 nook of the south coast, and may be seen flying on bright 

 days far into the winter. But sooner or later the damp, or 



STONE-CURLEW 



