266 SUMMER. 



The Green Plover (charadrinispluvialis) is, perhaps, 

 the bird most frequently met with in those upland situ- 

 ations that are intermediate between mountain and 

 marsh ; and the name pluvialis is given to this one, and 

 is, indeed, made the generic name of the whole race, 

 from a fancy that the bird takes pleasure in rain, and 

 therefore sports and whistles while that is falling. That 

 plovers love the rain for its own sake, cannot be true, 

 because though their plumage is not very easily ruffled 

 by it, still it must annoy them a little, and therefore 

 they can like it only for what it brings. And it brings 

 them abundance : earthworms come out ; the rain 

 drives insects and larvse from their hiding places in the 

 earth, and washes others from the heath and grass ; 

 and, as these are the food of the plover, it naturally is 

 most active when that is most abundant. The cry 

 which it utters in the morning is a call to arouse its 

 mate or its neighbours, because the morning is the 

 period at which it can best feed in dry weather ; and, 

 unless during the period of incubation, it is always a 

 social bird, social with its mate, with its young, when 

 these are hatched, and in flocks, as soon as the brood 

 take to the wing. 



Though a very common bird, the plover is by no 

 means destitute of beauty and interest. It is nearly a 

 foot long, and about two feet in the extent of the 

 wings ; and though its motions are not so rapid as 

 those of the lapwing, it flies well, and runs to admi- 

 r^ation. In summer, the prevailing colour in the upper 

 part of the bird is black, with a trace of dull green re- 

 flection, and mottled with greenish yellow spots toward 

 the margin. The breast is at that time of the same 



