148 Poachers and Poaching. 



though Gilbert White rightly surmised that those 

 observers were mistaken who fancied the young 

 were conveyed either by or in the bill. It is 

 just as erroneous,* however, to substitute the 

 claws, as some have done, for the bill. The 

 truth is, that when the parent bird wishes to 

 convey her young one from a place of danger to 

 one of safety, the tiny thing is gently pressed 

 between the feet and against the breast, the aid 

 of the bill being resorted to only when the 

 burden has been hastily taken up. In this way 

 the whole of the brood is sometimes removed 

 from one part of a wood to another, if the birds 

 have been much disturbed. This trait may be 

 confirmed by any one who will look out the bird 

 in its haunts, and is all the more interesting as it 

 seems to be quite an acquired one. The bird is 

 in no way adapted to transport its young through 

 the air. 



There are upwards of a dozen species of 

 British plover ; birds interesting to the natura- 

 list, dear to the heart of the shore-shooter and 

 to the sportsman of the marshes. Some of these 

 are summer visitants to our shores, others come 

 in winter, while a few stay with us throughout 

 the year. The common green plover or peewit, 

 with its crest, its peculiarly rounded wings, its 

 plaintive cry, is the best known ; and this species 

 breeds with us, as the abundance of its eggs 

 shows. In autumn the old birds and their 



