7<5 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Family CHARADRIID&. 



GOLDEN PLOVER. 



Charadrius pluvialis, LINN. 



THIS bird gets its French name of " Pluvier" and thence its English and 

 second Latin name, from its noisy restlessness in wet weather, (en temps 

 (>/iivifuxJ, and from its abundance at the time of the stormy and wet Equinoxes. 



In Great Britain the Golden Plover breeds in varying abundance on moors 

 in Ireland and Scotland, and in England, north of the Trent, sparingly in Wales, 

 and possibly in Devon and Somerset. It breeds abundantly in the Faeroes and 

 Iceland, Scandinavia, North Germany, and Russia, as far east as the Yenesei, 

 where it meets the next species. Some few nest in Holland and Belgium. Else- 

 where in Europe it occurs on migration, and its winter quarters are in S. Europe. 

 Africa (down to the Cape) and Asia Minor. On our shores, the first migrants in 

 autumn are a few old birds in faded summer dress, whose nesting arrangements have 

 probably ended unfortunately ; these appear early in August. About a month later 

 come the young birds in numbers, and a fortnight later the bulk of the old ones. 

 In the spring they may be noticed creeping northwards from the beginning of 

 March, or, in open weather, even in February. 



Colour of adult in summer, (from a male shot off four eggs, Dovrefjeld, 8, 6, 

 82) : bill black ; iris dark umber ; forehead, and a stripe over the eye, white ; 

 crown, back of neck, sides of chest and upper parts generally, black, beautifully 

 mottled with spots of golden, and creamy white, which are duller on the wing- 

 coverts ; primary and secondary quills sooty, with white shafts, except at the tips, 

 margined at the ends with a narrow white border ; tail barred diagonally with 

 sooty and white ; chin, ear-coverts, throat, centre of the breast and belly, black, 

 forming a large patch with a white edge to it ; thighs and under tail-coverts white ; 

 axillaries long and white ; legs bluish-grey; no hind toe. Length 9^-1 ij inches, 

 wing 7|-7f. 



Female in summer resembles the male, but has a sooty tinge in the black of 

 the breast, and a few white feathers mingled with it. 



Adults in winter have lost all the black on throat, face, and under parts, which 

 are white, washed with dusky on chin, throat, and breast, spotted with brown. 



