BBITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 207 



Local and other names : Field Lark, Field Titling, 

 Pipit Lark, Tree Lark, Grasshopper Lark. Sits 

 closely, especially when inciihation is advancing. 



PLOVER, GOLDEN. 



Description of Parent Birds. — Length between 

 eleven and twelve inches. Bill of medium length, 

 straight, and black. Irides brownish-black. On the 

 forehead is a band of white ; crown, nape, neck, 

 back, wing-coverts, rump, and tail-coverts, deep 

 greyish-brown, the edges and tips of the feathers 

 being marked with yellow ; wing-qnills brownish- 

 black ; tail dark brown, barred with brownish-black 

 and greyish- white. Chin, throat, sides of neck, 

 breast, and belly deep rich black, bordered on the 

 sides below the wings by a band of white ; under 

 tail-coverts wdiite. Legs, toes, and claws black. 



The female resembles the male, but both are 

 subject to some little variation, depending upon 

 constitutional vigour. 



Situation and Locality. — On the ground. I have 

 met with nests in short closely-cropped heather 

 that were nearly as cup-shaped as the nest of 

 the Chaffinch, and in which the four eggs were 

 almost standing on their sharp ends. Amongst 

 fringe moss, coarse grass, and short heather in the 

 rough moorland and wild boggy parts of Somerset 

 and Devon, the North of England, Wales, Scotland, 

 and Ireland. 



Materials. — A few pieces of dry grass, rushes, 

 or heather-tops, forming a lining to the hollow of 

 the nest. 



Eggs. — Four, pear-shaped, yellowish stone or 

 cream colour, blotched and spotted with umber- 



