PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 321 



GfOLDEN-PLOVER \Charddrius apricdrius Linnaeus; Charadriiis 

 pluvidlis Linnaeus. Yellow-plover, sheep' s-guide. French, pluvier dore ; 

 German, Gold-Regenpfeifer ; Italian, piviere dorato]. 



1. Description. The golden-plover may be distinguished from its congener 

 the grey-plover by the absence of a hind-toe and the white axillaries. The sexes 

 are alike, and there is a striking seasonal change of coloration. (PL 118.) Length 

 11 in. [279-40 mm.]. The male in nuptial dress has the upper parts black, spangled 

 with gamboge-yellow, the yellow taking the form of spots running round the margin 

 of black feathers ; on the hinder scapulars the spots become confluent and form 

 a yellow marginal band. A band of white crosses the forehead, and is continued 

 over the eye, down the side of the neck, and along the upper border of the flanks. 

 The wing-coverts are dark grey tipped with dull yellow, save only the major coverts, 

 which are tipped with white. The tail is dusky, imperfectly barred across the outer 

 web with yellowish white. The sides of the face, and the whole of the under parts 

 below the white line just described, are black, save the under tail-coverts, which 

 are white. The beak and legs are black, the iris hazel-brown. The female differs 

 from the male in having more or fewer white feathers intermixed with the black 

 breast feathers. Towards the end of the summer the yellow coloration of the upper 

 parts is much reduced by abrasion. After the autumn moult the sides of the face 

 and breast are white, and the fore-neck is tinged with yellow and marled by dusky 

 mottlings, while the inner primaries have white, free edges, and the major coverts 

 of the hand are tipped with white. The juvenile plumage resembles that of the 

 adults in winter, but differs in being distinctly more golden above. The fore-neck 

 is mottled with triangular spots of dusky brown, while the flanks are ashy brown 

 with dusky brown bars. The young in down is of a pale golden yellow mottled with 

 black. Two lateral white stripes run over the eye, and similar stripes run down 

 the back. The under parts are white, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles this species breeds sparingly on the 

 moorlands of Devon and Cornwall, and also in small numbers on the Cambrian 

 mountains and the Welsh borders, while it nests locally on the Pennine range and 

 its spurs south to the Peak district in N. Derbyshire. In Scotland it becomes 

 more numerous, and breeds not only on the moorlands of the mainland, but also 

 on the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetlands commonly. In Ireland it breeds on the 

 mountains, and in W. Connaught, also in the bogs. Outside the British Isles it nests 

 in the Faeroes, Iceland, and possibly Greenland, while it has also been seen in Jan 



