146 THE BIEDS OF OXFOEDSHIRB. 



peculiar to the breeding' season, and is pretty well known as 

 the ' Whistling- Plover/ Previous to the enclosure of the open 

 and common fields, these birds were abundant in Oxfordshire. 

 The late Mr. T. Goatley, of Chipping Norton, stated that 

 they ' come in considerable flocks in November and December, 

 and spend some time during the winter months upon the 

 higher grounds in the neighbovirhood, particularly the fields 

 of Chadlington and Dean, between this town and Charlbury, 

 and leave again in early spring.^ (Morris, Game Birds and 

 Wildfowl.) Mr. Warner writes of Standlake, — ' Common as 

 this bird was before the enclosure of the parish, it is now of 

 only frequent occurrence, though small flocks occasionally pass 

 over in the autumn season ■" [MS.). Standlake was enclosed 

 in 1848. About Oxford a few appear most winters. In the 

 neighbourhood of Kingham it is now rare (W. W. Fowler, 

 MS.), but in the spring of 1888, I was informed at the 

 ' Merry Mouth ' Inn that they still came in flocks to the 

 arable fields on the high open ground about there, between 

 Fifield and Tangley, several flocks having been observed in 

 the previous winter. In the northern division of the county 

 the Golden Plover is irregular in its appearance, though flocks 

 may sometimes be seen flying over, and occasionally stay a few 

 days in the Cherwell valley. The Golden Plover is very sus- 

 ceptible of changes in the weather, and their appearance with 

 us is usually coincident with, or immediately previous to, 

 stormy or bad weather. Thus at the end of December, 1885, 

 a flock of fifty or sixty appearing in the Cherwell valley fore- 

 told the severe weather we were to experience at the beginning 

 of the new year. In cold snowy weather, on the 25tli and 

 a6th March, 1883, I observed a flock of about five hundred 

 Plover, consorting with some Peewits, in the Cherwell 

 meadows near Bodicote, many of which had assumed the 

 black breast of summer. The sun shining out for a few 

 minutes displayed the pretty effect produced by the flock 

 wheeling and twisting in the air with the greatest rapidity ; 



