PLover. GRALLATORES. CHARADRIUS. 933 
their nuptial garb by the end of May. In this state, the 
Golden Plover has been described as a distinct species, un- 
der the title of Charadrius Apricarius, a synonym also ap- 
plied by ornithologists, in some instances, to the exotic 
species which I have before mentioned as having been con- 
founded with the present one. Some of our naturalists 
indeed seem, at this day, to be either not aware or not 
convinced of the change that annually takes place in the 
appearance of our species, for Mr Strpuens, the continua- 
tor of Dr Suaw’s General Zoology, under the head of Cha- 
radrius Apricarius (Alwargrim Plover), says, “ This, which 
TrEMMINCK asserts to be the summer plumage of Charadrius 
Pluvialis, 1 am induced to consider distinct, as I have never 
seen a specimen that was captured in England, where the 
Golden Plover is very common, and has been observed at 
all seasons.” That Mr Srreruens should not have met with 
it in this state in the south of England, is only what might 
be expected, as these birds quit their winter haunts before 
the change commences ; but that he should never have seen 
a British-killed specimen under this change, is certainly ex- 
traordinary, as many collections must at the time have pos- 
sessed such ; and I may add, that previous to the publica- 
tion of Mr Steruens’s eleventh volume, I was in the habit 
of sending this bird, in its summer dress, to various friends 
and correspondents, having, from my peculiar situation, op- 
portunities of obtaining it in all its stages of change.— About 
the end of May or beginning of June, the females begin to 
lay, making but little artificial nest, a small depression in the Nest, &c. 
ground amidst the heath being generally taken advantage of, 
and lined with a few dry fibres and stems of grass. The 
eggs are four in number, rather larger than those of the 
Lapwing, of a cream-yellow, inclining to oil-green, with large 
irregular confluent blotches or spots of deep umber-brown. 
The young, when excluded, are covered with a beautiful 
parti-coloured down of bright king’s-yellow and brown: they 
quit the nest as soon as hatched, and follow their parents 
