144 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



while on the ground ; but in the winter I have never 

 remarked these birds to call much except when 

 disturbed and on the wing. 



Their plaintive note, when heard upon a wild 

 moor or mountain-side, has something indescribably 

 pleasurable about it ; and, like Burns, I never hear 

 the loud, solitary whistle of the Curlew, or the wild 

 mixing cadence of a troop of Plover, without feeling 

 an elevation of soul, like the enthusiasm of devotion 

 or poetry. Although a wary and suspicious bird, 

 there are times when the Golden Plover will suffer 

 a near approach before taking flight. In the breeding 

 season I have several times crept within forty yards 

 of a Golden Plover on the ground, and during rain 

 they appear so loth to rise, that by moving very 

 slowly the sportsman may generally get well within 

 shot before they take the alarm.) 



I have remarked the same thing, however, with 

 regard to other birds, e. g., the Dunlin and Eing 

 Plover. I shall never forget the disappointment I 

 experienced when, on one occasion, during a heavy 

 shower, having approached by boat within thirty 

 yards of a flock of Golden Plover, I calculated upon 

 bagging at least a dozen, and when the flock rose 

 from the mud flat on which I found them, both 

 barrels missed fire ! 



The period at which the Golden Plover assumes 

 the summer plumage seems to var}^ considerably. I 

 have seen birds killed on the same day, some in 



