GOLDEN PLOVER — PEEWIT OE LAPWING. 147 



one moment showing" dark, and the next silvery white, as they 

 turned up against a background of black storm cloud, and the 

 white under-wing surfaces flashed in the sunlight. Again on 

 the 1 6th March, 1888, an extremely cold day, I found a little 

 party of these birds in the same valley, under Little Bourton, 

 approaching them pretty closely under cover of a thick snow- 

 storm. Three or four had a patch of black on the lower 

 breast, and one was in full breeding plumage. The latest 

 date in spring at which I have known the Golden Plover to 

 appear here is the 7th April, on which date, in 1888, I saw 

 a little flock consorting with Lapwings in the Isis meadows, 

 near Eynsham. 



THE GKEY PLOVER. 



Squatarola helvetica. 

 The Grey Plover, which is a regular, but not abundant, 

 visitor to the east coast of England, very rarely strays inland. 

 The Rev. A. Matthews informs me that he saw in the late 

 Mr. Forrest^s shop a specimen which had recently been shot on 

 the Isis at Oxford {in lit.). 



THE PEEWIT OR LAPWIN'G. \^ll 



Vanellus vulgaris. 

 The Peewit is a resident species, breeding, in some numbers, 

 alike on the upland fallows and corn-fields, and in the rough 

 hassocky meadows, where they appear in pairs by the end of 

 February if the spring is mild and open, but otherwise the 

 flocks remain in the meadows until nearly a month later ; 

 migratory flocks may be seen in some seasons as late as 

 April. When traversing one of the foot-paths which cross 

 many of our arable fields, or walking by the river side, the 

 wayfarer is often mobbed by day or night (unless it is very 

 dark) by a pair or two of Peewits, whose young are hidden in 

 the young corn or rough grass, the birds often swooping down 

 within a few feet of his head and producing a loud and 



L a, 



