Golden Plover. 381 



they were constantly uttering their plaintive melancholy cry, 

 most congenial with the circumstances, but most trying to the 

 listener. As we rode away next morning, these beautiful birds 

 in full breeding plumage were so tame that they would run 

 along the stony ground within a few yards of my horse, then fly 

 a few paces, and then stand and stare and run along as before. 

 It is very seldom that these pathless fjelds are trodden by the 

 human foot ; and this accounts for the absence of timidity 

 displayed by these birds. Our route was marked out (as it always 

 is in such fjelds) by small stones being placed upright on some 

 large conspicuous pieces of rock : these little pyramids of stone 

 are excellent landmarks to show the way; the snow does not 

 obliterate or conceal them ; and being readily formed, they are 

 numerous enough to guide the traveller from one to another. 

 It was while passing between two of these landmarks that I 

 discovered a nest of the Golden Plover, placed right in our path : 

 the nest was a mere depression of the scanty grass, unprotected 

 by bush, heather or rock : the eggs, four in number, and with 

 the small ends towards the middle (as is usual with all the Plover 

 tribe), had been sat upon for some time, but I succeeded in 

 bringing them away without damage, and they are now in my 

 cabinet.* In Scandinavia this Plover goes by the name of 

 Ljung-Pipare, or ' Heath Piper.' There are several reasons 

 adduced for the specific name pluvialis ; because it comes in 

 the rainy season, say some ; or because it frequents places damp 

 from rain, and marshes, say others; but without doubt, as it 

 seems to me, because it shows an extraordinary restlessness 

 before bad weather, and so announces the approach of rain- 

 storms. Sir K Payne- Gall wey, than whom there can be no 

 better authority as a field observer, says : ' Peewits and Plovers 

 are excellent weather prophets ; when they are heard and seen 

 screaming and wheeling in the evening, it is a sure sign of a 

 dirty night, as this is their usual hour to settle on the ooze or 

 meadows to rest or feed.'f But Yarrell says that the French 

 term Pluvier has been applied to the Plover, 'pour ce qiCon le 



Zoologist for 1851, p. 2979. t ' Fowler in Ireland/ p. 14. 



