THE ASIATIC GOLDEN PLOVER 



Seebohm describes the nest in his work on British Birds (vol. iii. p. 42) as 

 " merely a hollow in the ground, upon a piece of turfy land, overgrown with moss 

 and lichen," and this was " lined with broken stalks of reindeer-moss." According 

 to the same authority, the four eggs "vary in ground-colour from light buff to very 

 pale buff with a slight olive tinge, blotched and spotted with rich brown." He 

 describes the note as "very similar to that of the Grey Plover. Its commonest 

 note is a plaintive ko\ occasionally the double note kl-ee is heard, but more often 

 the treble note kl-ee-ko is uttered." 



THE GREY PLOVER. 



Squatarola helvetica (Linnaeus). 

 Plate 63. 



This beautiful Plover visits our shores in late summer and autumn, some only 

 as birds of passage, while others spend the winter and leave for their northern 

 breeding quarters in the spring. Sometimes individuals in full breeding plumage 

 may be seen on the coast as late as the end of May. It is more numerous on the 

 southern and eastern shores of England and east coast of Scotland as far north as the 

 Moray Firth, where I have seen it in autumn near Lossiemouth, than in the west. 



It visits Ireland in small numbers during the winter, but, according to Lord 

 Lilford, the term " Grey " is applied there to the Golden Plover, to distinguish the 

 latter from the Peewit, which has caused confusion. 



The late H. E. Dresser, in his Manual of Palczarctic Birds, gives the habitat of 

 the Grey Plover as " the extreme northern parts of Europe, Asia, and America ; in 

 winter migrating south throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, North and 

 South America." 



Seebohm describes the nest {British Birds, vol. iii. p. 47) as " a hollow, evidently 

 scratched, perfectly round, somewhat deep, and containing a handful of broken 

 slender twigs and reindeer-moss." He states that the eggs are " four in number, 

 intermediate in colour between those of the Golden Plover and the Lapwing, and 

 subject to variation, some being much browner, and others more olive, none quite 

 as olive as typical Lapwing's eggs or as buff as typical ones of the Golden Plover, 

 but the blotching is in every respect the same ; the underlying spots are equally 

 indistinct, the surface-spots are generally large, especially at the large end, but 

 occasionally very small and scattered, and sometimes taking the form of thin 

 streaks." 



iv. 17 c 



