324 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



the outside feathers are shorter than those in the 

 middle, making the tail a sort of wedge-shape ; the 

 chin and throat are white ; breast and flanks nearly 

 white, tinged with pale yellowish hrown and streaked 

 with dark brown ; vent and under tail- coverts rather 

 paler and without streaks ; the legs and toes are 

 yellow ; the claws black. In this bird, as in all true 

 Plovers, there are three claws in front and none 

 behind ; a few species, however, have a more or less 

 distinctly developed hind toe. In the young birds 

 the markings are less distinct.* 



The eggs are pale clay-brown, blotched, spotted 

 and streaked with ash-blue and dark brown.f 



GOLDEN PLOVER, Charadrius pluvialis. The 

 Golden Plover is tolerably numerous in various 

 parts of the county, but is generally only a winter 

 visitor, although a few are said to breed in the wild 

 country near Dunkery Beacon and Exmoor ; in the 

 more northern counties of England, and in Scotland, 

 it breeds plentifully. In hard weather in the winter, 

 when they are driven from the hills, they come down 

 into the meadows in the Vale, especially if they are 

 much flooded and not frozen : sometimes they remain 

 in such situations until quite late in the spring : in 

 the year 1865 I noticed them as late as the 30th of 

 March, when many of them had nearly attained their 

 summer plumage ; one which I then obtained for my 



* Yarrell, vol. ii., p. 469. f Id., p. 467. 



