PLOVERS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES 101 



mosses of tlieir country, this plover is said to have 

 not seldom guided by its presence the soldiery in 

 search of these stubborn worshippers. And for this 

 reason the Covenanters and their descendants longf 

 nourished a peculiar hatred of the bird. So late did 

 this antipathy exist, that Sir Walter Scott, in his 

 time, remembered the Lowland shepherds destroying 

 the nest of the green plover whenever found. 



Personally I can sympathize to some extent with 

 this ancient detestation, for the reason that, in the 

 far interior of South Africa, I have met with a 

 plover of equally annoying habits. Wandering 

 along the banks of the Botletli river in the Ngami 

 country in search of wildfowl, I have been so 

 pestered and annoyed by the species known as the 

 spur-winged plover, that at last, in a rage, I have 

 raised my gun and shot one or two of my tormentors. 

 These birds seem to have a strange hatred for the 

 human form. They have excessively sharp, ringing 

 voices — from which they take their native name, 

 " Setula T'Sipi," or " iron hammer " ; and, espe- 

 cially if one carries a gun, they greet the hunter 

 Avith the most noisy and incessant cries, scolding 

 perpetually, and swooping and dashing in quite a 

 combative manner often close to one's head. These 

 scolding tactics are by no means peculiar to the 

 nesting season. Naturally they disturb the fowl of 

 the vicinity, as seem^s to be their object ; and the 



