240 



PLOVEU 



PLUM 



1, Ringed Plorer ; 2, Gray Plover ; 

 3, Golden Plover. 



numbers frequent the sandy pastures and shores 

 of the Hebrides and of the Orkney and Shet- 

 land Islands. It makes an artless nest, little 

 more than a slight depression in the ground, and 



lays four eggs. 

 The parent birds 

 show great 

 anxiety for the 

 protection of 

 their young, and 

 use various strat 

 agems to divert 

 the attention of 

 an enemy. The 

 golden plover 

 exhibits great 

 restlessness on 

 the approach of 

 wet and stormy 

 weather, whence 

 its specific name 

 pluvial-it. The 

 Kinged Plover 

 (jEgialitis liinti- 

 cula), locally 

 called Stone- 

 hatch or Sand- 

 lark, a much 

 smaller bird, not 

 so large as a song thrush, is found at almost all 

 seasons on the shores of the British Islands, fre- 

 quenting sandy and shingly flats, from which the 

 sea retires at ebb-tide. It is often to be seen also 

 on the banks of large rivers, and not unfrequently 

 by lakes and ponds. It is found in most of the 

 northern parts of Europe and Asia, and in Iceland 

 and Greenland. It is grayish brown above, whitish 

 Ix'iieath, with a collar of white round the neck, 

 and below it a black in winter a brown 

 collar; the head marked with black and white ; a 

 white bar on the wing. Very similar, but smaller, 

 and with an incomplete collar, is the Kentish 

 Plover (&. cantiana); and also similar in form 

 and habits is the smallest of the British species, 

 the Little Kinged Plover (M. citroniea). Both of 

 these are rare in Britain. The Gray Plover 

 (Squatarola helvetica), a species somewhat larger 

 than the golden plover, is distinguished by black 

 axillaries, white tail-coverts, and the presence of a 

 hind-toe. North America has a number of species 

 of plovers, such as the Kildeer Plover \M. voctfera), 

 abundant on the great western prairies, and not 

 unfrequent in the Atlantic states. It utters, when 

 approached by man, a querulous or plaintive cry, 

 like the lapwing, the Green Plover. See I )i ITTKKRL, 

 and LAPWING ; and for the so-called Stilt Plover, 

 we STILT. 



Plover's eggs are sold in enormous quantities in 

 London and other large towns, and command an 

 extraordinary price, eighteen shillings a dozen or 

 even more, being sometimes given for them, and 

 the cost is seldom less than threepence or sixpence 

 |ier egg. These are supposed all to be plover's eggs, 

 or, really, lapwing's eggs ; but doubtless the eggs 

 of many other birds are substituted, those of the 

 red-shank being very similar in appearance and 

 flavour. Rook's eggs are too decidedly unlike the 

 plover's to be put in their place. Some sea-birds' 

 eggs are occasionally passed off under the name ; 

 and it is said that eggs outwardly unlike plover's 

 have been skilfully iwtinted by linnd in order to 

 deceive. Scotland, Ireland, and Holland are all 

 laid under contribution to produce the tens of 

 thousands of dozens of genuine plover's eggs 

 which it is computed are annually consumed in 

 London. 



I' I II III (Pnitai* riimmunit or P. domettica), a 

 species of fruit-tree of the natural order Kosacete. 



The plum is so familiar as a fruit in all temperate 

 countries as to need no description here. The Wild 

 Plum, or Blackthorn, or Sloe (q.v.), is common in 

 English hedgerows, thickets, and O|>en woods, and 

 occurs more sparingly in similar places in Scotland. 

 It is abundant in Europe generally, and in Russia 

 and central Asia. Fnmi the slo"e all cultivated 

 varieties of the plum are supposed to lie derived, 

 but some conjecture that P. iturititia ( Bullace, q.v.) 

 and P. tpitiosa are the parents of some of the types 

 of these varieties. The most reasonable probability 

 is that the several forms of wild plum found in 

 England and in other countries where they alxmnd 

 are merely varieties of one species P. domes! i*;i. 

 Other varieties of plum, besides the Sloe, Bullace, 

 and Damson found wild in England, are the 

 Mussel and the Wine Sour, which are used in cooking 

 ami in confectionery, and are regarded as primary 

 varieties of the wild' plum. The cultivated varieties 

 of the plum are very numerous ; there are larger 

 and smaller kinds, but their value in the dessert is 

 reckoned by their sweetness and flavour rather than 

 by their size. Thus, the Green Gage, a kind with 

 only moderate-sized fruit, is the most esteemed of 

 all. It is the Reitte Claude of the French, and the 

 Regina Claudia of the Italians. Magnum lion inn, 

 a very large white variety, though one of the 

 handsomest, is accounted only of second-rate 

 quality. The uses of the plum for dessert in the 

 making of pies, tarts, preserves, ami sweetmeats 

 are familiarly known. Prunes are the dried fruit 

 of certain kinds of plum. The finest of all the 

 French prunes are made at Brignole in Provence 

 of the varieties of plum called Perdrigon blatic and 

 Perdrigonviolette, which are hence named Pruiirnuf 

 de Brignole or Brignoles. The manner of convert- 

 ing these plums into prunes i by drying in a slow 

 oven. The fruit is allowed to remain on the tree 

 till it is so ripe that a little shaking would cause 

 it to fall. They are then carefully picked and 

 spread out in the sun on sieves made of lath or 

 wickerwork, till they become soft. Afterwards 

 they are put in a spent oven, and shut up close in it 

 for twenty-four hours, and then taken out. The 

 oven is again heated, somewhat warmer than l>efore, 

 and the plums returned to it till the following day, 

 when they are taken out and turned by slightly 

 shaking the sieve. Again the oven is re-heated. 

 rather warmer than before, and the fruit returned 

 to it for twenty-four hours, and so on till the opera - 

 tion of drying is finished, a point which only experi- 

 ence can nicely determine when reached. Other 

 kinds of prunes of inferior quality are made from 

 the fruit of the Petit Dumas, and from the Qn 1 



, 



the latter being made in Germany. From this also 

 is distilled a Kind of brandy. In Bosnia and 

 Ili-i/egovina nearly 60,000 tons of prunes are pro- 

 duced in a good season. Prunes are nutritious 

 and laxative, and stewed in water are excellent 

 diet in cases of costiveness, and during convales- 

 cence from fevers and inflammatory complain i-. 

 They impart their laxative quality to the water in 

 which they have been stewed, ami thus a pleasant 

 ami henelicial decoction may be prepared for those 

 who through impairment of the digestive organs 

 cannot eat the fruit. The plum is grown in orchards 

 as standard and bush trees, or they are in the cose 

 of the choicer varieties trained to walls. It is not 

 fastidious as to soil, but the finest fruit is produced 

 on strong but well-drained loam. The superior 

 kinds are propagated chiefly by building and by 

 grafting, the inferior by layers or by cuttings of tin- 

 roots, the latter being a common method in rearing 

 Damsons in-some part* : but the quickest and best 

 method of increasing all is by budding. The wood 

 of the plum-tree is hard and fine-grained, and is 

 used in cabinet-work, in turnery, and for making 

 musical instniments. The Cashmere Plum (P. 



