86 
The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 
the western side. The Golden Plover nests on the Breconshire 
Mountains, and commonly on the moors in North Wales, and 
the Precelly Mountains offer very suitable ground for their 
summer quarters. Mr. J. H. Salter, of University College, 
Aberystwyth, informs us that Golden Plovers breed sparsely on 
the Cardiganshire hills. We used to see large flocks every 
autumn and winter around Stone Hall, and often shot them 
when we were after Snipe, getting them within range by imitat- 
ing their whistling call. In the very cold spring of 1886, when 
a black frost with snow lasted for a stretch of six or seven 
weeks, the lower parts of the county were visited by tens of 
thousands of Golden Plovers. The birds might be seen on the 
muddy shores of Milford Haven, and in all the meadows adjoin- 
ing the coast, searching in vain for food. We actually saw some 
in the town of Haverfordwest. We saw others on the hard 
turnpike road that ran in front of our dog-cart like chickens. 
A few visited our kitchen garden at Stone Hall. Starving as 
they were, they did not perish in such numbers as the poor 
Peewits, that during this cruel frost we found lying about dead 
and frozen in the fields by scores. 
GREY PLOVER, Sguvatarola helvetica.—A winter visitor; not 
common; in Mr. Tracy’s experience, ‘‘only in severe weather 
are they seen on our shores, and are then very easily obtained, 
as they are by no means shy.” We have found the Grey Plover 
to have avery different disposition in other parts of the kingdom 
where we have shot it, but never without a very careful stalk, 
as we always found it to be one of the very wildest birds, even 
more suspicious and difficult to approach than the Curlew itself. 
Sir Hugh Owen has seen the Grey Plover at Goodwick, but is 
not able to include it in the list of birds that have fallen to his 
gun, a sufficient proof of its extreme wariness. 
RINGED PLOVER, #¢gialitis hiaticula—A common resident on 
the coast ; large flocks arrive in the autumn. This pretty bird 
nests commonly at many places on the coast. Mr. Tracy gives 
