438 CHARADRIIDjE. 



Mr. J. D. Salmon, then of Thetford, says of this species, 

 " that it is very numerously distributed over all our warrens 

 and fallow lands during the breeding-season, which com- 

 mences about the second week in April, the female deposit- 

 ing its pair of eggs upon the bare ground, without any 

 nest whatever ; it is generally supposed that the males 

 take no part in the labour of incubation ; this I suspect is 

 not the case : wishing to procure for a friend, a few 

 specimens in their breeding-plumage, I employed a boy to 

 take them for me ; this he did by ensnaring them on the 

 nest, and the result was that all those he caught during the 

 day proved, upon dissection, to be males. They assemble 

 in flocks previous to their departure, which is usually by 

 the end of October ; but should the weather continue open, 

 a few will remain to a much later period ; I started one as 

 late as the 9th of December, in the autumn of 1834." 

 Montagu mentions an instance of this bird being killed in 

 Devonshire as early as February in the year 1807. 



The Great Plover visits Lincolnshire; and Mr. William- 

 son in reference to the appearance of this species in the 

 vicinity of Scarborough, says, " they breed on the fallows, 

 and often startle the midnight traveller by their shrill and 

 ominous whistle. This is supposed to be the note so 

 beautifully alluded to by Sir Walter Scott in his poem of 

 the Lady of the Lake, 



" And in the Plover's shrilly strain, 

 The signal whistle 's heard again," 



for it certainly sounds more like a human note than that 

 of a bird." 



Further north than Yorkshire I do not trace it. 



These birds are usually seen in unenclosed countries or 

 where the fields are large; they frequent sheep walks, 



