The Golden Plover 



those golden plover nesting in the far north assume a more 

 handsome and striking summer plumage than those breeding 

 on the Border moors. 



Although the golden plover winters along the coast, it 

 is not a true shore bird. Only when hard frost binds the 

 stubbles and renders its usual food inaccessible does it 

 descend to the tide-mark. At such times flocks may be seen 

 standing disconsolate on the rocks at low water — they very 

 seldom alight on the sands — and at the first break up of the 

 frost the birds return to the fields, showing that the food 

 which they obtain between the tide-marks is less agreeable to 

 them than that picked up on the cultivated land. 



During a certain nesting season I had a golden plover's 

 nest under observation almost daily. I discovered the nest — 

 situated in a wild, inaccessible moorland bog in the Border 

 country — on May 25, on which date the parent bird had been 

 sitting, I judged, about five days. Returning to the bog the 

 following morning, I started to dig a "hide " a few yards from 

 the nest, cutting only a few sods to begin with, so as to avoid 

 unduly alarming the bird. The making of the hide was con- 

 tinued on the 27th, and after about two hours' hard work on 

 the 28th the structure was completed, and resembled a minia- 

 ture covered-in grouse butt. I thereupon took up my station 

 inside, with camera in position, and my companion, having 

 walled me in carefully, left the nesting ground. Within the 

 space of ten minutes the plover, quite unsuspecting, was back 

 on her nest. The day was baking hot, with scarce a breath 

 of wind, and the sitting bird seemed greatly distressed by the 

 heat, panting constantly and looking most uncomfortable. 



When I exposed a plate on her the slight noise of the 

 shutter gave the bird a desperate start, and noticing for 

 the first time the horrid-looking eye of the lens peering 

 down on her, she shot off the nest, and had not put in an 

 appearance again in two hours, at the end of which time I 

 left the hide for the day. The following morning was cold, 

 dull and misty, so I did not go to the nesting site; but the day 



27 



