GOLDEN PLOVEE 227 



compact mass towards the ebbing tide. I have repeatedly 

 seen flocks, which frequent the ooze-flats, detach them- 

 selves into small parties as the tide rises and covers their 

 feeding-grounds, and again congregate into immense flocks 

 as the sands are laid bare. 



Flight. On the wing the Golden Plover is remarkably 

 swift. When a shot is fired into a flock, several of the 

 birds will drop vertically as though struck, and then con- 

 tinue their flight, turning and twisting with wonderful 

 adroitness, at no great height from the ground. 



Food. This bird seeks its food by night as well as by 

 day. Insects of different kinds, sand-hoppers, worms, slugs 

 minute snails, and other shell-fish, together with vegetable 

 matter, form the diet. I have found larvae, 3 inches in 

 length, present in the gizzard : grit and pebbles are fre- 

 quently swallowed. 



Voice. The clear and not unmusical whistle, syllabled 

 clei-ivee, del -wee, may now and then be heard at night 

 over our great cities ; the note in the breeding-season is 

 described as tirr-pee-you (A. Chapman). 



Nest. This Plover breeds on flat bogs as well as on 

 elevated moor-lands, frequently on the summits of high 

 mountains. The nest is a depression scraped in the 

 ground, lined with a few blades of dry grass. 



The eggs, four in number, are of a rather light buff or 

 stone-colour, sometimes of a rich reddish-buff, boldly marked 

 with dark brown blotches and spots. Incubation begins 

 about the end of April. 



The Golden Plover breeds freely in the northern counties 

 of England, in Scotland, and in all four provinces of Ireland ; 

 it nests in proportionately fewer numbers in Wales and 

 in some of the southern counties of England, but in the 

 eastern section it is mainly a bird of double passage. 



The art of decoying intruders from the nest and young 

 is well developed in the Golden Plover. At the least sus- 

 picion of danger, the female will leave her eggs, and running 

 along the ground for a short distance, take flight in silence. 

 Even when the intruder is a long way from the nest, the 

 male may be heard setting up his plaintive and pleading 

 cry of alarm to distract attention from his mate while she 

 is slipping from off her nest. When the young are hatched, 

 the parents will flutter and tumble and assume such atti- 

 tudes as would denote that they were suffering from a 

 broken leg or wing. In this way they often coax an enemy 



