74 BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



THE GOLDEN PLOVER 



(Charadrius pluvialis). 



Plate 25. 



The typical Plovers constitute a well-marked section of the 

 Wader Order, and among other characteristics are marked 

 by their short and rather stout beaks and by their less 

 distinctively littoral habits. The bleak extensive tundras 

 of sub- Arctic Europe and Asia form the home of most 

 of the Plovers, individuals and species, that concern us in 

 this country. Some few of these, principally members of 

 the present species, remain to nest on the elevated moor- 

 lands of the British Isles. It is true that in autumn 

 these home-breeding birds seek the coastal districts, and 

 may then be found feeding on the tidal mud-flats and 

 sandbanks, but it is probably more a matter of general 

 climatic conditions than love of littoral feeding-grounds. 

 In autumn, also, our coasts form part of the migration 

 routes of many of the Plovers nesting in more northern 

 lands, including representatives of the handsome Gray 

 Plover, or perhaps of still rarer species which, like it, 

 never nest within our area. Many of these migrants 

 find congenial winter-quarters with us ; but greater numbers 

 pass on, some of them to lands far south of the equator, 

 to repass our shores more hurriedly on the return journey 

 late in spring. Before their passage is nearly over, how- 

 ever, our own moors have their full quota of Plovers 

 already engaged in the serious business of incubation. 

 And on this depends a problem. Do the birds breeding 

 farthest north migrate farthest south, and do birds breed- 

 ing midway, as the Plovers in the British Isles, remain 

 more or less stationary ? Or do the midway birds 



