GOLDEN PLOVER. 449 



individual bird, whether male or female, and I have occa- 

 sionally seen female specimens in a summer dress as rich 

 and as perfect as that of the finest male. The plumage, 

 during this assumption of colours or tints peculiar to the 

 breeding-season, is called by French naturalists Plumage 

 des Noces ; by some English authors it has been styled the 

 nuptial dress, and I once heard a poulterer call them the 

 bird's wedding feathers. The French term Plumer is said 

 to have been applied to the Plover, "pour ceqvton le prend 

 mieux en temps pluvieux quun nulle autre saison" Our 

 word Plover is derived from the French Plumer. 



The Golden Plover is found during summer breeding on 

 the high hills and swampy grounds of the North of Eng- 

 land and Scotland. Mr. Thompson of Belfast, says it is 

 common in Ireland, breeding in the least-frequented bogs 

 throughout that country. It visits the Cheviot Hills, and 

 other high ground of the border counties in the North of 

 England every year. Mr. Don says it breeds on the hills 

 of Forfarshire, as noticed in his account of the native plants 

 and animals of that county, appended to Lightfoot^s Flora 

 Scotica, which was published at the expense of Pennant. 

 Mr. Selby says of this bird in Sutherlandshire, that "it is 

 plentiful throughout the county, but particularly abundant 

 in the district between Lairg and Tongue, the parish of 

 Durness, Scourie, &c. Sutherland appears to be one great 

 breeding-station of this species." In the Hebrides, Mr. 

 Macgillivray observes, " I have often gone out to shoot 

 them at night by moonlight, when they seem as actively 

 engaged as by day, which was also the case with the 

 Snipes ; but I seldom succeeded in my object, it being 

 extremely difficult to estimate distances at night. The 

 numbers that frequent the sandy pastures and shores of the 

 outer Hebrides is astonishing. Dr. Neill, Mr. Salmon, and 



VOL. II. G G 



