﻿Beneficial to Agriculture. 1 1 



exist in Cumberland and Northumberland, and there are many- 

 colonies in Scotland and Ireland. 



The nest is placed among sedges, rushes, and other coarse 

 swampy herbage, and is composed of similar growth ; the nests are 

 frequently quite close together. The eggs number three, as a rule, 

 but sometimes four ; they vary both in ground-colour and markings, 

 from olive -brown to pale greenish-blue, and are occasionally 

 pinkish in ground-tint, blotched, speckled, and streaked with 

 dark brown and leaden-grey. During the height of the egg- 

 laying they are collected in enormous numbers and sent to market, 

 and in many cases sold as plovers' eggs. The collecting of the 

 eggs for this purpose should be prohibited after the first week of 

 May, as laying usually begins by the middle of April. 



Owing to the good rendered by this bird to agriculture, it 

 should be afforded protection in order to retain its present 

 abundance, but it should not be allowed to become too numerous, 

 as in the case of the rook and starling. Its food consists mainly 

 of insects, many being caught on the wing. It destroys large 

 numbers of very injurious species, such as cockchafers, crane-flies, 

 saw-flies, wire-worms and moths, also worms, slugs, and seeds. 

 Flocks of these birds commonly follow the plough and the harrow, 

 to feed on the various grubs and worms as they are turned up. At 

 such times they clear off great numbers of wire-worms and other 

 pests injurious to crops. 



The adult in spring has the head and throat hooded in deep 

 chocolate-brown — which is missing in winter — white round the eye ; 

 mantle and scapulars lavender-grey ; upper tail-coverts and tail, 

 also under-parts, white, the latter tinged with pink ; outer primaries 

 mostly with white tips and with margins of inner webs black ; 

 outer web of first primary black ; bill, orbits, legs and feet crimson. 



GOLDEN PLOVEE. (PI. III.) 



Charadrius pluvialis. 



In Great Britain the Golden Plover — or "Whistling Plover, as it 

 is sometimes called — is much more plentiful and generally dis- 

 tributed during the autumn and winter months, owing to the very 

 large number which arrive from August until the end of October 

 from the Continent and more northern regions. The early arrivals 



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