ANOTHER NOTE. 271 



is soft with rain, than when it is not ; and the first fall 

 of snow drives the plovers from the uplands ; neither 

 do they return till the snow be melted in the spring. 

 A few of them frequent the shores every winter, and 

 when the weather is severe, they appear there in great 

 numbers. 



There are few birds of which the ignonegenes are 

 more perplexing than the plover, it is in fact almost 

 the British cameleon. One sees it in one light, and 

 it is "green;" a second takes a greater fancy to the 

 yellow spots, and it is " golden ;" a third comes upon 

 it in the winter; the green and the gold have both faded, 

 and lo it is "grey." We wonder why somebody did 

 not take a fancy to the breast of the male in summer, 

 and call it " black"! 



As you proceed onward to the mountain, if you be 

 early enough, it is by no means improbable that the 

 whistle of the plover will procure you a salutation in 

 another key, if you have to pass, as is very common in 

 such places, a pool of water which has been partially 

 dried up by the summer, and is surrounded by a morass, 

 or even by a marginal fence of tall grass, rushes, reeds, 

 and equisetums. The evening is no doubt the best 

 time for getting that salutation, for then it is a volun- 

 tary, and the late part of the spring is preferable to 

 the summer ; but in the grey dawn of a summer morn- 

 ing, as you pass the kind of place that has been alluded 

 to, you are very apt to be startled at " bhu-hu-hu-hu- 

 hn /" repeated again and again, and every time louder 

 than another, till you would be apt to think that the 

 whole wilderness is laughing at you ; and which, as 

 you find out at the last, proceeds from a bird that is 



