THE GOLDEN PLOVER. 
89 
courlie or rather tarhiiy beginning its cries at sunset, and continuing 
them all night. This large Plover is of the size of a chicken that 
has attained half its growth, and measures sixteen inches in length, 
twenty-six inches and a half in extent of wings. The Land Curlews 
arrive pretty early in the spring ; they settle on the dry ground?, 
filled with stones among fallows and stubbles, preferring low hills 
and sloping fields. Crickets, grasshoppers, and other insects form 
part of their food. During the day these birds keep themselves con- 
cealed and crouched on the ground ; but at sunset they put them- 
selves in action, and are heard to commence their cries, which they do 
not cease to repeat during the summer nights. When surprised thoy 
run with extreme speed ; their flight is low, and not very long ; they 
are very wild birds, not easily made up to. The female lays two or, 
at most, three eggs, in the midst of pebbles or gravel, in some de- 
pression of the ground, or in a hollow which these birds have formed 
by scraping. It is said they sometimes have two broods in the year, 
that incubation continues for a month, and that the growth of the 
feathers is slow in the young. In fact they are nearly full grown 
iJipfore they can fly, their wing feathers not having yet sprouted ; but 
they can run in this state with great lightness, and at this age appear 
as stupid as timid. In November the Land Curlews set out on their 
journey to warmer climates, and it appears that even in summer they 
do not advance far northward. As an article of food, their flesh ia 
held in moderate estimation. 
GOLDEN PLOVER. 
The Golden Plover, sometimes called the Yellow, or 
Whistling Plover, whose scientilic name is Pliivialis Aiirea^ 
or, according toLinnseus, Charadrius Pluvialis^ is one of the 
