212 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



Had we remained later on the moor referred to, 

 we should in all probability have been rewarded by 

 finding the eggs, since we have been assured that 

 the Golden Plover breeds there annually. The 

 nest is a very slight affair, not unlike that of the 

 Peewit, and the eggs also are very similar to the 

 Peewit's eggs, although larger and more richly 

 coloured. 



The young when first hatched are remarkably 

 pretty little things, being powdered over, as it 

 were, with golden yellow upon a brown and gray 

 ground-colour. They run as soon as they leave 

 the shell, and fly well by the end of July. The 

 family parties then unite in August, and begin to 

 form those dense flocks to which we have already 

 referred, and which are looked for in winter with 

 such eagerness by sportsmen in the south. 



