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 
localities. 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. 
