BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 77 



ordination will probably come sooner or later in a chance 

 sudden flash. In either case, once the co-ordination is 

 made the bird is plain enough, and if it remains stationary 

 we can find it again without difficulty if we look away 

 for an instant. If there is anything in the plumage not 

 in the surroundings we have something definite to look 

 for, or even to catch the eye when not specially intent. 

 For instance, if there be no cotton-grass about, nor any 

 wisps of wool on the heather, the small amount of white 

 in the Golden Plover's plumage is enough to betray it. 

 Still more is this the case with the greater amount of 

 white in the plumage of the somewhat similar Gray 

 Plover. 



The sexes are nearly alike in summer plumage, but 

 the female is duller and has less black on the breast. In 

 winter plumage the under -parts of both become white, 

 with a fulvous brown tinge on the breast. Birds passing 

 north in early summer, after ovu* own birds have retired 

 to their moors, are then in full-breeding plumage, and 

 are said to be even blacker on the under-parts than home- 

 breeding individuals. These may attain their summer 

 dress as early as the end of February. 



Suitable haunts are wanting in the south-eastern half 

 of England ; but in the extreme south-west, in Wales, in 

 much of the north, as well as over most of Scotland and 

 Ireland, the Golden Plover is a familiar nesting-bird on 

 the higher levels. Late in April or early in May the 

 eggs are laid in a mere depression on the moor. They 

 are almost invariably four in number, and resemble the 

 familiar 'Plover's eggs' (really Peewit's, as a mle) of the 

 market — grayish or yellowish green, blotched and spotted 

 with various shades of brown — but are larger in propor- 

 tion to the bird. Both sexes take part in the incubation, 

 and in due course the young are hatched. These are 



