ON MOORS, COMMONS, AND HEATHS. 153 



rushes and cotton-grass, and pools of clear water 

 or dancing streams which -have eaten a course 

 deep through the black peaty soil, we may meet 

 with the GOLDEN PLOVER (Charadriiis pluvialis], widely 



111* 11 111 1 distributed. 



recognised by his yellow speckled upper plumage Rare south 

 and black belly, and by his flute-like whistle ofshi erb ' 

 klee-wee. Like most of the birds that are found 

 upon the moors the Golden Plover is only a 

 summer visitor to them, and quits them in autumn 

 for a more lowland haunt. Upon their first arrival 

 here they are observed in flocks, but a week or so 

 later they have separated into pairs, and have 

 become much more tame and trustful. Very pretty 

 they look as they run along the ridges or stand 

 poised upon the hillocks. If alarmed they rise 

 into the air with noisy cries and fly to and fro on 

 powerful wing ; yet they never indulge in those 

 erratic aerial movements so common with the 

 Lapwing. Golden Plovers breed in May, making 

 a slight nest under the sheltering shield of a grass 

 or rush tuft, and laying four beautiful eggs, buff in 

 ground colour, blotched and spotted, especially 

 on the larger end with rich dark brown, and 

 sparingly with gray. As soon as the young are 

 reared they and their parents gather into flocks, 

 and eventually all wing their way from the moors 

 to the coasts. Beetles and worms, together with 

 seeds, buds and shoots of plants form their food 

 on the moors ; but when on the coast their diet is 

 almost exclusively composed of animal substances. 

 It should be remarked that after the autumn moult 

 the black underparts become white. 



Two or three other wading birds are also 

 inhabitants of the moors in summer. The first 

 we will glance at is the CURLEW 



