THE GOLDEN PLOVER. 383 



At the approach of autumn, no matter where their 

 summer may have been passed, Plovers migrate southwards 

 in large flights, those from Scotland to the southern counties 

 of England, where they frequent wide moist pastures, 

 heaths, and reclaimed marsh-land. From the northern parts 

 of the continent of Europe they take their departure in 

 October, either to the European shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean, or to the plains of Northern Africa. In these 

 migrations they are not unfrequently joined by Starlings. 

 They travel in close array, forming large flocks much wider 

 than deep, moving their sharp wings rapidly, and making 

 a whizzing sound, which may be heard a long way off. 

 Now and then, as if actuated by a single impulse, they 

 sweep towards the ground, suddenly alter the direction of 

 their flight, then wheel upwards with the regularity of a 

 machine, and either alight or pursue their onward course. 

 This habit of skimming along the ground and announcing 

 their approach beforehand, is turned to good purpose by 

 the bird-catcher, who imitates their note, attracts the whole 

 flight to sweep down into his neighbourhood, and captures 

 them in his net, a hundred at a time, or, when they are 

 within range, has no difficulty in killing from twelve to 

 twenty at a shot. Not unfrequently, too, when some 

 members of a flock have been killed or wounded, the 

 remainder, before they remove out of danger, wheel round 

 and sweep just over the heads of their ill-fated companions, 

 as if for the purpose of inquiring the reason why they 

 have deserted the party, or of alluring them to join it once 

 more. This habit is not peculiar to Plovers, but may be 

 noticed in the case of several of the sea-side waders, as 

 Dunlins and Sanderlings. In severe winter weather they 

 desert the meadows, in which the worms have descended 

 into the ground beyond the reach of frost, and so of their 

 bills, and resort to the muddy or sandy sea-shore. In the 

 Hebrides it is said that they do not migrate at all, but 

 simply content themselves with shifting from the moors 



