92 
CHA11ADEIIDJ2. 
Burns, indeed, tells us that he could never hear the loud soli- 
tary whistle of the curlew in a summer noon, or the wild mixing 
cadence of a troop of grey [golden] plover, in an autumnal morn- 
ing, without feeling an elevation of soul, like the enthusiasm of 
devotion or poetry/^ 
Brom Burns, the transition to Scotland, and especially to Ayr- 
shire, is natural ! When grouse-shooting near Ballantrae, in this 
county, on the 12th of August, 1839, we met with a small flock 
of golden plover in their breeding ground. On the 16th of the 
month I saw several small flocks, and remarked, as I had often 
done before, how much more easy of approach this species is 
during rain (of which there had been a good deal that day) than 
at other times ; but for the dogs, 1 should twice or thrice have 
been within shot of them on the ground. On the 13th or 14th, 
which were fine, I could not, though the birds were much fewer 
in number, get within two or three shots of them. So much 
for the effect of the rain, to which, in consequence of the golden 
plover bearing the trivial or specific name of pluvialis, some 
authors have imagined it to be partial. Its spirit, instead, droops 
under rain like that of the barn-door fowl, so faithfully depicted 
by Washington Irving in his wet Sunday at an inn.* When 
* Mr. Yarrell remarks, but on what authority is not stated, that “ the French 
term pluvier, is said to have been applied to the plover — ‘ Pour ce qu'on le prend 
mieux en temps pluvieux qiPun nulle autre saison ” — for the same reason the 
n am e pluvialis may have been bestowed — and most correctly — on the golden 
plover. 
A note on the effect of rain on some other bii-ds may here be given : — July 28, 
1838. When taking shelter from heavy rain, under trees bordering Belfast bay, I 
observed that the lapwings were at first stationary, not attempting to feed ; but 
towards the end of it they commenced feeding, perhaps in consequence of victims 
being driven to the surface. Several herons which were in view ceased looking for 
prey (which they had been doing just before it commenced), and evinced their dis- 
content by their shapeless bodily appearance and their neck being shortened to the 
vitmost. Dunlins continued to feed busily during the mere “ heavy rain though 
when it pom’ed down tremendously they could not remain on the ground or beach, but 
kept flying about in small flocks. W'hen a shore-shooter myself, during tw'o or three 
autumns (now many years ago), I remarked, what was indeed well known to others, 
that the Grallatores were much more easy of approach during rain than at other 
times. When the morning had been very wet, and the rain over by noon, the dunlins, 
for the remainder of the day, though a perfect calm, kept in flocks of singular 
density ; — as close together as they could possibly fly. On questioning an intel- 
ligent shooter on the subject, it was stated that he would even prefer a wet day in 
autumn for shooting to a snowy one in winter, especially for the knot {Tringa 
