144 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



while on the ground ; hut in the winter T have never 

 remarked these hirds to call much except when 

 disturbed and on the wing. 



Their plaintive note, when heard upon a wild 

 moor or mountain-side, has something indescribably 

 pleasurable about it ; and, like Burns, I never hear 

 the loud, solitary whistle of the Curlew, or the wild 

 mixing cadence of a trooj) of Plover, without feeling 

 an elevation of soul, like the enthusiasm of devotion 

 or poetry. Although a wary and suspicious bird, 

 there are times when the Golden Plover will suffer 

 a near approach before taking flight. In the breeding 

 season I have several times crept within forty yards 

 of a Golden Plover on the ground, and during rain 

 they appear so loth to rise, that by moving very 

 slowly the sportsman may generally get well within 

 shot before they take the alarm. 



I have remarked the same thing, however, with 

 regard to other birds, e. g., the Dunlin and Ring 

 Plover. I shall never forget the disappointment I 

 experienced when, on one occasion, during a heavy 

 shower, having approached b}^ boat within thirty 

 yards of a flock of Golden Plover, I calculated upon 

 bagging at least a dozen, and when the flock rose 

 from the mud flat on which I found them, both 

 barrels missed fire ! 



The period at which the Golden Plover assumes 

 the summer plumage seems to yslyj considerabl3^ I 

 have seen birds killed on the same day, some in 



