Oil Moorlands and Roito/is. 69 



attention for a time to the cliicks. All four of these 

 artful youngsters at the first alarm scattered in as 

 many different directions and hid themselves amongst 

 the heath and grass almost with the rapidity of 

 thought. Search as we might we could find but 

 two, although we knew full well the others were 

 concealed on a patch of ground no larger than 

 an ordinary table. These two chicks we pocketed 

 for specimens, but we were so touched by the way 

 the old Lapwings followed us over the moor crying 

 so plaintively that more humane feelings got the 

 better of us, and we returned to the spot and placed 

 both young birds where we had found them. Such 

 little episodes as these go so far, we always think, in 

 making ornithology so very attractive. 



Another allied species breeding on most of our 

 northern moors (and in some few instances in the 

 south-western counties) is the Golden Plover. There 

 are few more handsome birds of this order than the 

 Golden Plover in w^edding plumage. The upper 

 parts — as they are all the year round — are thickly 

 spotted with golden yellow on a dark-brown ground, 

 the under surface is black as jet. We begin to see 

 these Plovers back upon their moorland breeding- 

 places in March; in .April they become more nume- 

 rous. Like most of the other birds found on these 

 moors in summer they spend the winter upon the 

 lowlands; in this case frequenting the llat coasts and 



