324 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
the outside feathers are shorter than those in the 
middle, making the tail a sort of wedge-shape; the 
chin and throat are white; breast and flanks nearly 
white, tinged with pale yellowish brown and streaked 
with dark brown; vent and under tail-coverts rather 
paler and without streaks; the legs and toes are 
yellow; the claws black. In this bird, as im all true 
Plovers, there are three claws in front and none 
behind; a few species, however, have a more or less 
distinctly developed hind toe. In the young birds 
the markings are less distinct.* 
The eggs are pale clay-brown, blotched, spotted 
and streaked with ash-blue and dark brown.t 
GoLDEN Puover, Charadrius pluvialis. The 
Golden Plover is tolerably numerous in various 
parts of the county, but is generally only a winter 
visitor, although a few are said to breed in the wild 
country near Dunkery Beacon and Exmoor; in the 
more northern counties of England, and in Scotland, 
it breeds plentifully. In hard weather in the winter, 
when they are driven from the hills, they come down 
into the meadows in the Vale, especially if they are 
much flooded and not frozen: sometimes they remain 
in such situations until quite late in the spring: in 
the year 1865 I noticed them as late as the 30th of 
March, when many of them had nearly attained their 
summer plumage; one which I then obtained for my 
* Yarrell, vol. i1., p. 469. + Id., p. 467. 
