THE GOLDEN PLOVER. . 211 



The two specimens which we carried home had 

 not quite assumed their full summer dress, there 

 being still a few white feathers cropping out upon 

 the underparts. The stomachs of both contained 

 a number of little shining beetles, and a few small 

 univalves, of which we could not then determine 

 the species. 



At this time of year, May, the whistle of the 

 Golden Plover seemed unceasing, and proceeded 

 from the birds while on the ground ; but in the 

 winter we have never remarked these birds to call 

 much except when disturbed and on the wing. 

 Their plaintive note upon a lonely moor or moun- 

 tain-side has something indescribably wild and 

 pleasurable about it, and we never hear it without 

 feeling, like Burns, an elevation of soul like the 

 enthusiasm of devotion or poetry. 



Cowper, in his Winter Walk at Noon, says : 



" There is in souls a sympathy with sounds, 

 And as the mind is pitch'd, the ear is pleased 

 With melting airs and martial, brisk or grave ; 

 Some chord in unison with what we hear 

 Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies." 



How often have we proved the truth of this ! 



