CAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 139 



Allied Forms. — None more closely allied than Charadrius 

 fulvus, and its American representative, C. fulvus americanus, 

 treated fully in the two following chapters. 



Time during which the Golden Plover may be taken. 



— August ist to March ist. 



Habits. — The Golden Plover, like many other birds, is a 

 species that changes its haunts according to season. In summer 

 it is an inhabitant of the moors and mountain heaths, the rough 

 upland pastures and the tundras ; in winter it quits these places 

 and takes up its residence on the lowland marshes, the pastures, 

 and rough saltings near the sea, and the low flat coasts and mud- 

 flats. For the greater part of the year it is a social bird, even in 

 the breeding season, I have seen parties of half-a-dozen or so, but 

 towards autumn it becomes much more gregarious, and lives in 

 flocks of varying size throughout the winter. The flight of this species 

 is rapid and steady, especially during migration, or when the bird is 

 passing from place to place, performed by regular and quick beats 

 of the wings. This Plover also often indulges in various aerial 

 evolutions, and flocks often assume the shape of a V or W during 

 flight. Most of its food is obtained during winter on the mud-flats 

 and saltings, and it very often retires to some inland spot 

 between the tides to sleep, or to rest and wait until the muds are 

 exposed again. Vast flights of Golden Plover — the Plover of the 

 coast — make their appearance on our low-lying coasts in autumn, 

 many of which continue along our shores and cross the sea again 

 to winter further south, but many others remain with us for that 

 season. In no part of the British Islands can the migration of 

 this species be better remarked than in the neighbourhood of the 

 Wash. For days and nights, about the end of October and early 

 in November, I have known this Plover fly over from Continental 

 Europe in almost one incessant stream, the flocks succeeding each 

 other so quickly as to form a nearly unbroken throng. This 

 Plover may frequently be noticed in company with Dunlins, 

 Lapwings, and Curlews, and occasionally a few Gray Plovers 

 mix with them. As its flesh is very palatable, great numbers are 

 shot in the autumn and winter. I have repeatedly noticed that 

 just before stormy weather the Golden Plover becomes restless 

 and unsettled, and often leaves a district entirely before the 



