A WAliy BIRD. 
91 
size, and gazing upon us each from its mossy tuft. It is as 
if two mortals had a conference on the heath with three 
celestial messengers ; and so they have. Presently a breeze 
rolls away the mist, and discloses a number of these 
watchful sentinels, each on its mound of faded moss, and 
all emitting their mellow cries the moment we offer to 
advance. They are males, whose mates are brooding over 
their eggs, or leading their down- clad and toddling chicks 
among the, to them, pleasant peat-bogs that inter- 
vene between the high banks clad with luxuriant heath, 
not yet recovered from the effects of the wunter frosts, 
and little meadows of cotton grass, white as the snow- 
wreaths that lie on the distant hills. How prettily they 
run over the grey moss and lichens, their little feet twink- 
ling, and their full bright and soft eyes gleaming, as they 
commence their attempts to entice us away from their 
chosen retreats.' 
All the Plovers and allied species display great anxiety, 
and resort to pretty stratagems, to protect their young; 
when aware of the approach of an intruder, the female 
crouches down as long as possible to avoid detection ; and 
when she is discovered, runs some distance before she 
takes wing, lest, rising directly from the nest, she should 
direct a foe to the spot. Sometimes, when a dog is aj)- 
proacliing, she rises wdth plaintive cries, and seems to 
fly with difficulty, as though wounded and likely to be 
easily caught; thus the enemy is lured on in pursuit, 
imtil sufficiently far away to render the discovery of 
her young unlikely; she then throws off the mask, and 
urges a bolder and stronger flight, still, however, keeping 
wdthin an easy distance of the nest, and watching over 
it with tender solicitude. Charlotte Smith, in her poem 
on Beachy Head, alludes to this well-known habit of the 
bird : — 
And often from licr nest among the swamps 
Where the gemmed sundew grows, or fringed Luckbcan, 
They scare the Plover that with plaintive cries 
Flutters as sorely wounded down the wind. 
Yet, although a wary and cautious bird, the Plover may 
frequently be enticed very near to the fowler by an imitation 
