236 SHORTER-BILLED RUNNING BIRDS. 



GOLDEN PLOVER, — Plate 103. 11 inches. 

 Upper parts finely mottled with ; black, white, and 

 yellow ; forehead and stripe over the eye white, the 

 latter running down the sides of the neck to the sides 

 of the body, which also are white ; face, front of neck, 

 breast, and belly all black; sides of breast mottled 

 black and yellow ; bill and legs black. In winter the 

 black of the under parts is absent, and the general 

 appearance of the birds is lighter and browner. 

 Besident and winter migrant. 



Eggs. — 4, pear-shaped, yellowish stone -colour, 

 densely blotched with umber- brown ; 2-0 x 1 '4 inches 

 (plate 131). 



Nest. — Merely a depression in the ground among 

 short grass, heather, or bare earth, with a scanty lining 

 of bits of dead stalks, heather, and similar material. 



The Golden Plover breeds on the moorlands 

 throughout the United Kingdom, but only in small 

 numbers on the higher grounds in the south of 

 England. Several pairs often nest near one another, 

 maintaining a loose association even during the 

 breeding season. Like Lapwings, their associates 

 both in their summer and winter haunts, they place 

 their eggs on the ground, in a slight hollow in the 

 herbage, the male generally standing on some small 

 eminence to give warning by a melancholy ' KSp ! ' 

 when any one approaches. Then the female bird slips 

 from the nest, and, running with lowered head, takes 

 wing only when some distance from it. Any other 

 pair in the neighbourhood take the warning sign, and, 

 rising, pass it on. If the young are out, vociferous 



