106 GREAT PLOVER. - 



Greek Islands, Italy, Provence, Sardinia, Spain, and Turkey; also in Asia Minor, and 

 between the Black and Caspian Seas; in Africa, even to the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 in Madeira. 



The localities frequented by these birds are wide open downs, warrens, or large fallow 

 fields, where it can hardly be surprised. We ourselves have found it not uncommonly 

 on the open unenclosed tops of several of the hills in the neighbourhood of Charmouth, 

 Dorsetshire; on these it breeds regularly every year, and we have many a time at- 

 tempted, unsuccessfully, to shoot it. We never met with it except during the summer 

 months. We first made its acquaintance, certainly only a distant one, on the top of 

 the hill behind Langmoor, near Charmouth; there it used to frequent a very large 

 rough field, much covered with stones; it invariably kept near the middle of this field, 

 and if any person entered it at any point, it would instantly take wing. We never 

 succeeded in seeing it on the ground; and we certainly considered it the most wary 

 bird we ever tried to have anything to do with. 



On one occasion, a farmer shot one on the top of a hill about a mile and a half 

 distant from the above-named locality; having picked it up and handled it, he threAV it, 

 apparently dead, upon the ground, while he re-loaded his gun : before, however, he had 

 time to accomplish this, the bird was off, apparently as well as ever; and he never had 

 another chance of getting near it. Whether the bird was feigning death, or merely 

 recovered itself, we do not say. 



The males assist in incubation, as was proved by Mr. J. D. Salmon, and recorded in 

 "Loudon's Magazine of Natural History." He says "It is generally supposed that the 

 males take no part in the labour of incubation; this, I suspect, is not the case. Wishing 

 to procure for a friend a few specimens in their breeding plumage, I employed a boy 

 to take them for me. This he did by ensnaring them on the nest ; and the result was 

 that all those he caught during the day proved, upon dissection, to be males." These birds 

 feed during the night, and like other birds with similar habits, have very large, beautiful, 

 and prominent eyes. 



The Great Plover is usually considered to be entirely migratory, yet it is certain that 

 'some do remain in suitable mild districts throughout the year. In Cornwall, Mr. Rodd 

 has only procured them during the winter; and in Ireland, most of those recorded 

 occurred during the autumn or winter months. Mr. Salmon also mentions that near Thet- 

 ford, in Norfolk, he started one in 1834, as late as the 9th. of December. There can be 

 no doubt, however, that the great bulk are merely summer visitors, arriving about the 

 middle of March, and leaving us by October, taking along with them the young broods 

 which they had reared. 



It seems to require but little water, like the Bustards ; for on the situations it affects, 

 it can scarcely obtain any, unless from the dew-drops on the scanty herbage. In Dor- 



