GOLDEN PLOVER. 
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some eminence near the nest, giving warning by his loud 
peculiar whistle the moment an intruder appears.” 
Unlike the old birds, the unfledged young ones conceal 
themselves by sitting close to the ground among moss and 
heather, and are then most difficult to discover; when, how- 
ever, they are compelled to attempt other means of escape, 
they run and double in such a manner as to render the task of 
catching them one of no small difficulty. 
Although the coloiuing of the eggs varies considerably, they 
can scarcely be mistaken for those of any other British species, 
except perhaps the Peewit, from which they may be known by 
their larger size and richer colouring. In 1863 I made the 
following observations upon the colouring of these eggs ; and, on 
looking over a large series of notes in later journals, I see no 
reason to make any alteration in what was then stated : — I 
have long observed, with no little perplexity, the remarkable 
variety of colour which occurs in the eggs of the Golden 
Plover, and the regularity with which each colour in its turn 
predominates according to the degree of advancement of the 
season. Every year I see large numbers of the eggs, and the 
general rule appears to be that those which are laid early in the 
season have a dingy hue, the ground colour being strongly 
tinged with dull olive-green, and that a little later this begins 
gradually to become less frequent, giving place to creamy 
white, sometimes riclily tinged with warm yellowish brown; 
the latter is deepest and most common in June and July, when 
the breeding season is drawing to its close. At this time 
also the spots and blotches are very abundant, and are more of 
a reddish brown colour.” Possibly the dingier and earlier eggs 
are those of older birds. The most beautiful variety is of a 
warm cream colour, with intensely deep brown blotches or 
spots, and with numerous rather large spots of light purplish 
grey. The usual size is about two inches in length by one 
inch and a half in breadth, but I have had one specimen 
measuring two inches and four lines by one inch and nine lines. 
The eggs are far superior in flavour to those of the Peewit. 
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