GOLDEN PLOVER. 



39 



In the adult male Golden Plover in breeding-plumage the upper parts 

 are nearly black, spotted with yellow; the forehead, eye-stripe, sides of the 

 neck, axillaries, thighs, flanks, and under tail-coverts are white, mottled 

 here and there with dusky; and the chin, throat, breast, and belly are 

 black. Bill, legs, feet, and claws nearly black; irides dark hazel. The 

 female has the white parts more mottled with dusky than the male, and 

 the black on the underparts is browner and mixed with white feathers. 

 After the autumn moult but little change appears in the upper parts, but 

 the underparts are white, mottled with brown on the breast and flanks. 

 Young in first plumage closely resemble adults in winter plumage, but the 

 breast and flanks are more profusely mottled with brown, and the former 

 is suffused with buffish yellow. This plumage is slowly moulted in autumn, 

 birds of the year being intermediate in colour between young in first 

 plumage and adults in winter plumage. Young in down are yellow above, 

 spotted and blotched with black, and are nearly white beneath. 



1 



WATCHING GREY PLOVERS THROUGH A CLOUD OP MOSQUITOES. 



