18 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



Plovers are all localized in pairs on the high moors, though 

 they will not have eggs till a month or five weeks later. 

 These birds are already at that date almost as black on the 

 breast as our local Plovers ever become, for they never 

 acquire the full black breasts invariably depicted in books, 

 but which are only attained by the more northern races. 

 The Northumbrian Plovers at best are only marbled. Even 

 in Shetland, and in Southern Norway, I have noticed a much 

 closer approach, in this respect, to the full typical develop- 

 ment, and the examples obtained by my brother Alfred, in 

 Finmark, were perfectly black beneath. This more complete 

 assumption of the typical summer plumage in proportion as 

 one goes further north is a remarkable, and appears (where 

 applicable) a tolerably constant feature in ornithology. The 

 inference as to the Polar origin of such species is irresistible. 

 Thus the Bramblings (Fringilla monti/ringilla) shot by my 

 brother in 70 north latitude, were markedly more perfect 

 in the glossy blue-black of their heads and shoulders than 

 others obtained on the Dovre-fjeld (lat. 63 N.) and on the 

 Sogne-fjord (lat. 61 N.) at a corresponding season. 



Again, what other birds of the known world attain so 

 complete and perfect a summer-transformation as the hyper- 

 borean trio the Grodwit, Knot, and Curlew- Sandpiper ; the 

 only species (with one exception) whose breeding-places are 

 yet undiscovered hidden amidst the inaccessible penetralia 

 of the Arctic zone ? 



In February the Curlews return ; and very welcome is the 

 first sound of the wild long-drawn rippling note, and the 

 first sight of the shapely clean-cut form sailing across the 

 dark heather. Their arrival has occurred as early as 

 February 5th, and as late as March llth, the average being 

 about mid-February. In very stormy seasons, when the 

 fells are buried in snow, the Curlews delay their return till 

 the snow has melted ; as in 1886, when none appeared on 

 the moors till March 19th. These Curlews also are travellers 

 from afar ; they have come from Spanish marismas, from 

 African lagoons, and from the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 The Curlews of our own coast do not breed here ; they 

 remain on the oozes and sand-flats all through the months 



