2 CHAEADKIID^. 



cheep of the Dunlin, or the loud scream of the Curlew. Before you have 

 advanced to any considerable distance, there may come up and alight on some 

 mossy knoll beside you, a male, clad in his beautiful summer vesture of black and 

 green. You may approach him within ten paces if you are inclined, and in some 

 districts it would be easy for one to shoot many dozens of them in a day at 

 this season. After incubation has commenced, the females seldom make their 

 appearance on such occasions. Whether the males assist their mates at that time 

 or not, they certainly do not forsake them. The nest is a slight hollow in a tuft 

 of moss, or on a dry place among the heath, irregularly strewed with fragments of 

 withered plants. The eggs, of which the full number is four, are placed, as usual 

 in this genus, with their small ends together. They are much larger and more 

 pointed than those of the Lapwing, being on an average two inches and one 

 twelfth in length, and an inch and five twelfths in their greatest transverse 

 diameter. The shell is thin and smonth, of a light greyish-yellow, or pale 

 greenish-yellow, or cream-colour, irregularly spotted, dotted, and patched with 

 dark brown, and sometimes having a few light purple spots interspersed, and 

 markings larger towards the broadest part. The young leave the nest immediately 

 after they burst the shell, and conceal themselves by lying flat on the ground. At 

 this period the female evinces the greatest anxiety for their safety, and will 

 occasionally feign lameness to entice the intruder to pursue her. I have several 

 times seen one fly ofl" to a considerable distance, alight in a conspicuous place, 

 and tumble about as if in the agonies of death, her wings flapping as if they had 

 been fractured or dislocated. The eggs are delicious, and the young birds when 

 fledged noc less so." 



The late Dr. Saxby gives the following account of the breeding habits of this 

 species * : — " The Golden Plover breeds abundantly in every part of Shetland, 

 even on the small outlying holms. The breeding plumage begins to appear in 

 January, but for some weeks before it is completed — about the middle of INlarcb 

 — the birds pair, the males becoming very noisy and flying to a considerable 

 height. It is by no means unusual to meet with flocks long after pairs liave 

 betaken themselves to their summer haunts, a circumstance wliicli may possibly 

 be accounted for by the supposition that young birds breed latest ; but, in point of 

 fact, eggs may be found in a fresh state from the end of April even to the 

 beginning of July. The nest is to be met with in almost every situation where 

 heather occurs, even upon the highest tops of the hills, but sunny slopes facing 

 the south or south-west are preferred. I have found more in slight hollows or 



• 'Birds of Shetland,' pp. 159-lGl, 



