HABITS OF THE GREAT PLOVER. 277 



ground give (in most cases, I am not sure if in all) a little run 

 forward. After the descent there was a good deal of running 

 about, and very shortly another smaller flock flew up, doubtless 

 from same place, though this I did not see. This last may have 

 contained some twenty to thirty birds. The main body it was 

 impossible to count; they were more together than before, not in 

 the long straggling line that I had noted on 20th. After they 

 had gone down I made haste to count them before they had 

 become more concealed by the heather, and I made out one 

 hundred and eight, some five or ten minutes later about seventy, 

 and again, counting them after making these entries (com- 

 mencing from about the Herons, and taking, I should say, a 

 quarter of an hour), I could still make out fifty-four. They do 

 not therefore appear to have concealed themselves quite so 

 effectually as on 21st. There were no birds running about. As 

 far as I can judge without a watch, it must have been about 

 8 a.m. when the birds flew up. After the last batch of them had 

 arrived I again heard, once, the whistling note I have described 

 (" tir-whi-whi-whi-whi-whi "), otherwise there was complete 



silence. 



(To be continued.) 



