GOLDEN PLOVER. to 
Accustomed, however, as I have been for some years to 
listen for these well known sounds at the beginning 
of autumn, I never remember noticing any particular 
mingling of notes—although at times the golden plover 
and lapwings seemed massed together—until the 23rd 
of August, 1865, when the feathered host which then 
visited our city and neighbourhood* exceeded not only 
in numbers, but in combination of species, anything 
before recorded in this part of the kingdom. The 
night was extremely dark, and the close sultry air 
foretold the storm which, about two a.m., culminated 
in one terrific flash of lightning, accompanied by a 
deafening peal of thunder and a perfect deluge of rain. 
Between nine and ten o’clock I was first attracted by the 
ordinary whistle of the plover, but on stepping into the 
garden, became aware at once of the unusual character 
of this migratory flight. The air seemed literally filled 
with birds, but, though at times they were apparently 
within a few yards of one’s head it was impossible 
to see anything, even when standing close to the gas- 
lamps, on the road. Different flocks appeared to answer 
each other, and their confused clamour was so great 
* T may here remark that a Correspondent in the “Field” 
(September 9th, 1865) records a large flight of birds at Leicester, 
as observed by himself on the very same evening. He was attracted 
by the noise, and on going out saw “the dark outline of a flock of 
birds, going in a south-westerly direction.” From their notes he 
believes the majority to have been “geese of some kind or other,” 
and their attendants he thinks were of the plover species; but a 
friend imagined “that he could detect the note of an owl amongst 
the rest.” In the following autumn, another Correspondent in the 
same journal (September 15th, 1866), writing from Cranbrooke, 
describes a very large flight of birds as having passed over head on 
the 9th of that month. It was raining hard at the time, and very 
dark. Their notes resembled “ pweet, pweet,” apparently uttered 
by some hundreds in each flock, and were heard by him, at intervals 
of about ten minutes, from half-past eleven till two a.m. 
L 
