532 GOLDEN PLOVER. 



early in autumn onwards, especially when the light of the moon 

 enables them to feed by night. 



In summer the Golden Plover has been found on Jan Mayen and 

 in Greenland, while it is a regular visitor to Iceland, the Fperoes 

 and Northern Europe ; breeding as far south as the moors of 

 Brabant, Luxembourg and Germany. Over the rest of the Continent 

 it occurs on migration, passing the cold season in the basin of the 

 Mediterranean, and wandering to Madeira as well as down the coast 

 of Africa to Cape Colony. It visits Novaya Zemlya, and inhabits 

 the tundras of Siberia as far east as the Lena, but beyond the 

 Yenesei the smaller CJi. fiilvus (the subject of the next article) 

 predominates. In winter it has been found in Turkestan and 

 Baluchistan, but has not yet been recorded from India proper. 



The slight and scantily-lined depression which serves for a nest is 

 usually in short grass or heather, but often where the ground is 

 quite bare ; the eggs, 4 in number, are large in proportion to the 

 size of the bird, and are of a yellowish stone-colour handsomely 

 blotched and spotted with rich brownish-black : average measure- 

 ments 2 by I "4 in. Incubation, in which the male occasionally 

 takes part, commences towards the end of April even on the bleak 

 moors of Northumberland, but later in Northern Europe ; and the 

 young run as soon as they are hatched, though unable to fly for a 

 month or five weeks. The food consists of insects and their larvae, 

 worms, slugs, small molluscs, the fry of the common mussel, and 

 a little vegetable matter. The note is a clear whistling tli/i, often 

 heard by night over large towns at the times of passage ; the 

 spring-call being described by Mr. A. Chapman as tirr-pcc-yoii. 



In spring the adult male has the forehead white ; crown, nape 

 and mantle blackish, profusely spotted with gamboge-yellow, the 

 markings on the inner secondaries being of an oak-leaf pattern ; 

 tail barred with brown ; above the eye a white line which continues 

 down each side to the neck and even to the flanks ; under parts 

 black ; axillaries ivhite ; bill, legs and feet black ; no hind-toe. 

 Length 11 in. ; wing 7*75 in. The female has usually less black 

 on the breast. After the autumnal — and only complete moult, the 

 under parts are white, tinged with dusky yellowish-brown on the 

 breast, and the upper parts are more yellow than in spring. I have 

 handled a bird in England on February 20th with nearly black 

 breast. The young resemble their parents in winter-plumage, but 

 are still yellower above ; the flanks are more mottled, and the tips 

 of the axillaries are often very distinctly spotted with ash-brown, 

 although the bases of those feathers are white. 



