GOLDEN PLOVER 203 
October or the end of September. The numbers vary 
greatly from year to year, and their movements are very 
erratic, hard weather sometimes bringing great numbers to 
the pastures in the lower country, even to the coast; a 
few Golden Plover are sometimes associated with a flock 
of Lapwings. 
Fifty-three Manx ‘Plover’? against twelve imported, 
were recorded in dealers’ books in 1902, and in 1903 
respectively five and ninety-five, seemingly a strange 
discrepancy (but see under Lapwing). The species occa- 
sionally appears in the Migration Reports. 
The well-known Manx folk legend of the Lhondoo and 
Ushag-reaisht is thus given in Mr. Moore’s Manx Folk-Lore, 
p. 150. ‘It is said that once upon a time the haunts of the 
Lhondoo were confined to the mountains, and those of the 
Ushag-reaisht (Charadrius pluvialis) to the lowlands. One 
day, however, the two birds went on the borders of their 
respective territories, and, after some conversation, it was 
arranged to change places for a while, the Ushag-reaisht 
remaining in the mountains till the Lhondoo should 
return. The Lhondoo, finding the new quarters much more 
congenial than the old, conveniently forgot his promise to 
go back. Consequently the poor Ushag-reaisht was left to 
bewail his folly in making the exchange, and ever since has 
been giving expression to his woes in the following plaintive 
querulous pipe :— 
‘** Thondoo, vel oo cheet, vel 00 cheet ?” 
(Blackbird, are you coming, are you coming ?”) 
‘The Blackbird, now plump and flourishing, replies :— 
. ‘“ Cha-nel dy bragh, cha-nel dy bragh !” 
(“No, never! no, never ! ”) 
1 Lapwings are separately recorded. 
