GOLDEN PLOVER. 625 



the field at two hundred, and supposing each to have shot twenty dozen, 

 forty-eight thousand Golden Plovers would have fallen that day. 



On inquiring if these passages were of frequent occurrence, I was told 

 that six years before, such another had occurred immediately after two 

 or three days of very warm weather, when they came up with a breeze 

 from the north-east. Only some of the birds were fat, the greater num- 

 ber of those which I examined being very lean ; scarcely any had food in 

 their stomach, and the eggs in the ovaries of the females were undeveloped. 

 The next morning the markets were amply supplied with Plovers at a 

 very low price. 



I have again applied to my friend William Macgillivray for an 

 account of the manners of this species during the breeding season, which 

 I now lay before you. 



" The Golden Plover is in many parts of Scotland, but especially in 

 the Northern Highlands, and in the Hebrides, a very common bird. 

 When the weather begins to improve towards the end of spring, these 

 birds may be seen flying over the shores or fields in their vicinity, at a 

 great height, in loose flocks, which now extend into a wide front, now form 

 irregular angular lines, move with a quiet and regular flight, frequently 

 emitting their peculiar soft notes, and at times uttering a singular cry, 

 somewhat reseinbling the syllables courlk-wee. These flocks are leaving 

 their winter haunts and returning to the inland moors, over which they 

 disperse in pairs. In the beginning of May, should you traverse one of 

 the dreary heaths, you will often hear the plaintive cry of the Plover, 

 mingling, perhaps, with the feeble cheep of the Dunlin, or the loud 

 scream of the Curlew. Before you have advanced to any consider- 

 able distance, there may come up and alight on some mossy knoll be- 

 side you, a male, clad in his beautiful summer vesture of black and 

 green. You may approach him within ten paces if you are inclined, 

 and in some districts it would be easy for one to shoot many dozens 

 of them in a day at this season. After incubation has commenced, 

 the females seldom make their appearance on such occasions. Whether 

 the males assist their mates at that time or not, they certainly do not for- 

 sake them. The nest is a slight hollow in a tuft of moss, or on a dry 

 place among the heath, irregularly strewed with fragments of withered 

 plants. The ego-s, of which the full number is four, are placed, as usual 

 in this genus, with their small ends together. They are much larger and 



VOL. III. ® ^ 



