18 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



nests containing fragments of egg-shells in Scotland 

 and Ireland ; these nests consist of a slight cavity in 

 the moss that covers the more open spaces amongst 

 the heather, and have generally a little lining of fine 

 grass-stems ; the eggs are four in number, of a 

 rich yellowish stone- colour, ^Yith large irregular 

 markings of very dark brown, and are very large for 

 the size of the bird. I used to notice during my 

 tenancy of the deer-forest of Gaick that the Golden 

 Plovers came down from the high tops at dusk 

 in August and September to feed in the rushy 

 meadows of the valley in which our lodge was 

 situated, though I never saw or heard one there 

 in the daytime. As a rule our birds left the forest 

 altogether about the second or thu'd week of Sep- 

 tember, but I once found our highest ground alive 

 with Golden Plovers on a misty morning in October ; 

 these were evidently on their southward migration 

 and had " lost their reckoning " in the thick weather. 

 In August there is little difficulty in making a good 

 bag of these birds on the moors, as they will generally 

 allow of a pretty close approach till they have been 

 fired at, and even then show some reluctance to leave 

 their haunts, and may be easily driven and stalked, 

 and even in August are well worth any amount of 

 trouble from a culinary point of view, though not so 

 superlatively excellent for the table as during the 

 winter months. In our Northamptonshire meadows 

 I have generally found the Golden Plover very wary 

 except in foggy weather, but in the case of small 

 " trips " have generally contrived to get a shot by a 

 little scheming, unless these Plovers were in the 

 company of Peewits. The birds of this species that 

 \dsit us in early autumn seldom remain for any great 



