GOLDEN PLOVER. 5 



the place and found the nest. I have always observed that Curlews fly from 

 their nests." 



Referring to the last sentence, Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown adds the following 

 footnote : — " This, also, I have always noticed, but, in returning to the nest, they 

 alight at a considerable distance and run to it, as, indeed, do many other species. 

 Some waders, on the other hand, fly very close up to the nest, and then run 

 quickly on to it. The more shy species appear to follow the first method, and the 

 tamer species the latter, but no doubt in all cases something Avill depend upon the 

 state of incubation of the eggs at the time." 



Mr. Abel Chapman writes * : — " Golden Plovers seldom or never nest among 

 covert — i. e. the nest is on the shortest grass or heather, often on perfectly bare 

 ground. There is no attempt at concealment. On being approached, one Plover 

 will rise straight from her eggs, a couple of hundred yards away ; another slinks 

 off, creeping away unseen through the heather ; at other times, though more rarely, 

 she will rise off her eggs at one's feet, even when fresh laid. The young run as 

 soon as hatched, but are long in acquiring the power of flight, and retain the 

 golden down on their necks when full-grown, as any grouse-shooter can see 

 in August." 



Mr. F. S. Mitchell, referring to the nesting of this species in Lancashire, 

 writes f: — "The eggs are four in number, and are laid about the 1st of May, and 

 a nest I found on Pendle Hill on the 10th May, 1879, consisted of a rather deep 

 and neatly-rounded hollow, the bottom being covered with about half-a-handful 

 of dry bents, and the position was a rather bare, grassy place, several yards from 

 any heather, and with a good look-out over the neighbouring ground. The old 

 bird flew away with just one whistle when she had got about twenty yards from 

 the nest, and did not re-appear, though I heard her whistling in the distance for 

 nearly half-an-hour, even then being very shy, and flying a long way off when I 

 moved towards her." 



Mr. Seebohm says the eggs of the Golden Plover " are pyriform in shape, and 

 vary in length from 2-2 to 1'9-j inch, and in breadth from 1-5 to T3 inch." J 



* ' Bird-life of the Borders,' p. 30. 



t 'Birds of Lancashire,' p. 176. 



X ' History of British Birds,' vol. iii. p. 37. 



