198 OUR RARER BIRDS 



golden upper plumage contrasts with the vernal verdure, 

 and how conspicuous their black bellies look as they rise 

 into the air! Ever and anon their wild flute-like whistle, 

 sounding like Klee-wee, breaks the stillness of the fresh 

 mountain air, and is answered from all parts of the moor. 

 Should you remain long watching their movements, every 

 bird in the district takes up the alarm, and you see them 

 rising from the heath or settling down again on every side, 

 and hear their piercing notes from all parts of the moor. 

 The flight of this bird is powerful and at times very rapid, 

 performed with regular beats of the long wings ; but we never 

 see this Plover indulge in those aerial movements which 

 are so characteristic of the Lapwing. 



In summer the Golden Plover feeds almost exclusively on 

 worms and insects. These birds are not what we can call 

 gregarious in summer, although numbers breed on the same 

 stretch of moor ; still they are eminently social among them- 

 selves, and often feed in parties. I remember once to have 

 come across a small flock of these birds, which were feeding 

 on the maggots in a dead sheep lying a little distance from a 

 rough wall. Through a hole in this wall I was able to watch 

 the actions of these pretty birds ; and it was a curious sight 

 to see them running nimbly over the sheep's body, some of 

 them half hidden amongst the wool and flesh, and all so 

 eager in their search for food as to allow me to approach 

 them actually within a few feet before they took wing. I 

 have often seen them in the rough pastures, close to the 

 moors on which sheep and cattle are turned out to graze 

 during the summer. Here they frequent the droppings of 

 these animals, and turn over the manure for the beetles and 

 small worms ; and they also search for food in the little 

 swamps, and by the sides of the mountain pools. When on 

 the moors in summer they eat various kinds of seeds, as well 

 as the buds and shoots of plants. In winter the Golden 



