GOLDEN PLOVER. 69 



■uplands. If they are in a marsh all day they often move 

 off to a ploughed field just as it is dusk, and vice versa ; 

 if upon arable land, they go down to the marsh for 

 the night." My own experience exactly confirms this 

 statement, as some years since, when in the habit 

 of shooting, late in the season, at Framingham, near 

 Norwich, I used frequently, after leaving the turnips, 

 to await the chance arrival of plover on the high grounds 

 where they roosted, at times, in large ^^congregations." 

 In the vicinity of the coast they are also found in 

 great plenty during the winter months, both at the 

 mouths of our tidal rivers, and on the flat shores of the 

 '^ Wash," alternating between the "muds " and marshes, 

 as the tide ebbs or flows. As before remarked, their 

 numbers, like many other winter visitants, depend much 

 on the severity of the season, a sudden change to frost 

 and snow, bringing large accessions from more northern 

 locahties. In the extremely sharp winter of 1859-60, 

 when our rivers were frozen over, a large quantity of 

 both golden plover and lapwing were brought to the 

 Norwich market, on the 23rd of December ; and in the 

 winter of 1829, as recorded by Messrs. Paget, a dealer 

 in Yarmouth received in one day, from the surrounding 

 district, a hundred and fifty golden plover besides snipe 

 and wildfowl. 



The not unfrequent occurrence of specimens in the 

 spring, late enough to have acquired the black breast of 

 their summer plumage, has no doubt led to the suppo- 

 sition that they have occasionally remained to breed 

 here, an impression evidently entertained by Messrs. 

 Sheppard and Whitear, owing to a few being seen, on 

 one occasion during the nesting season, on Mousehold- 

 heath, near Norwich.^ Of this, however, I can find no 



* A locality also named by Hunt as an occasional resort of this 

 species late in the spring. 



