9230 Birds. 
Ornithological Notes from Shetland. By Henry L. Saxsy, M.D. 
(Continued from p. 9131.) 
Golden Plover.—The golden plover is one of our earliest breeders, 
usually beginning to lay in the middle of April, but this season being 
a very backward one, laying commenced about a fortnight later, Eggs 
will be abundant until the end of June, but it is by no means unusual 
to find them as late as the second week in July. In Mr. Newman’s 
useful little book ‘ Birdsnesting, p. 34, the materials of the nest are 
spoken of as “scarcely any, a few fragments of heather and dried 
grasses carelessly scraped together,” and on referring to my note-books 
I find that those very words might have well been applied to eleven 
out of the fifteen nests of this species therein described. Occasionally, 
however, and particularly during the first few weeks of the breeding 
season, the nest is constructed with more than ordinary care, and then 
consists of a deep saucer-shaped cavity, thickly and compactly lined 
with the above-mentioned materials, measuring between five and six 
inches across. It is almost invariably situated among moss or heather, 
sometimes by the side of a stone or upon the top of some slight 
eminence, where there is sufficient growth to afford concealment. The 
only opportunity which has fallen to my lot of observing the length of 
time occupied by incubation, occurred three years ago. About noon, 
on the 7th of May, I found four warm eggs, and on blowing one, ascer- 
tained that it was perfectly fresh. I afterwards visited the nest almost 
daily, and on the evening of the 23rd observed that two of the remaining 
three eggs were already broken by the chicks. Next morning, on my 
approaching the nest, three young birds, mottled gray and yellow, ran 
out of the neighbouring heather. There was no appearance of the 
broken shells either in or near the nest. IT have never known the male 
take any part in the task of incubation, although he is very attentive 
to his mate, and constantly supplies her with food while she is sitting ; 
but both birds are so shy that, at such times, their habits can be wit- 
nessed only by means of long and patient watching from some place 
favourable for concealment, such as a large stone or the deep channel 
of a burn. While the female is sitting the male takes his station upon 
some eminence near the nest, giving warning by his loud peculiar 
whistle the moment an intruder appears, who, if he be sufficiently 
quick-sighted, may see the female start from the nest and run swiftly 
away: sometimes she will take wing at once, but this most frequently 
happens when the nest is situated m a valley, or upon the side of a 
