458 THE ZOOLOGIST, 



AN OBSERVATIONAL DIARY OF THE HABITS OF 

 THE GREAT PLOVER ((EDICNEMUS CREPI- 

 TANS) DURING SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER. 



By Edmund Selous. 



(Concluded from p. 277.) 



September 2ith. — Left house at 3.20 a.m. It was bright 

 moonlight, with a strong wind. Walked to the amphitheatre, 

 and sat down on the edge of it at another place which I thought 

 better suited for observation. Whilst on my way heard the cry 

 of a Great Plover (the ground-note) quite near to the road. I 

 must have been only a few paces from it when it went up, which 

 would never have occurred in the daytime. 



Whilst still moonlight, and before the dawn had broken, 

 heard cry of Peewits in the air, and afterwards, in first grey of 

 the dawning, that of the Great Plovers, and shortly afterwards 

 these birds commenced to fly; first some half dozen, singly, or one 

 following another irregularly, and with more or less gap between 

 them. They flew from the direction of the river over the amphi- 

 theatre and, without alighting on it, continued, just topping the 

 bracken, till I lost them over the crest of a rise. Have no doubt 

 they went to their gathering-place amongst the heather. A rabbit, 

 when just light enough to see, jumped extraordinarily high, several 

 times in succession, shooting up from amongst the bracken in a 

 wonderful way. Soon after sunrise a great number of Peewits 

 flew together low over the ground on outer margin of amphi- 

 theatre, and then circled around and over it, high in the air, and 

 getting gradually higher. Amongst them I now observed a 

 Kestrel-Hawk. It was flying with them, the Peewits being 

 close together (in a flock) at the time, and, shortly after, he had 

 separated a bird from the body (at least the bird became sepa- 

 rated), and the two were some time flying together ; but I saw no 

 active attack on the part of the Hawk. The latter I shortly 

 missed, whilst getting them through the glasses, and the Peewit 



