PLUVIALINiE. PLUYIALIS. 
49 
168. Pluyialis aubea. Golden Plover. 
Bill rather slender, nearly as long as the head. In winter 
the upper parts brownish-black, spotted with yellow, the 
cheeks, neck, and fore part of the breast, variegated with 
brown, the throat and abdomen white, as are the axillat 
feathers. In summer the upper parts black, spotted with 
bright yellow ; the fore-neck and breast black ; the forehead, 
a line over the eye, a band bordering the black of the lower 
parts, and the lower tail-coverts, white. Young when fledged 
brownish-black, spotted with bright yellow above, and in other 
respects scarcely different from the adult birds in their winter 
dress. 
Male, lOf, 22J, 7J, 1, 1 T 8 2> lyb T V Female, 10^, 22, 
Generally distributed over Britain in the winter season, 
when it frequents the open plains and ploughed fields, so long 
as the weather remains mild, but betakes itself to the sea- 
shore and its vicinity when there is frost. Toward the end 
of spring they pair and betake themselves to the heaths, 
where they breed. At this season they are abundant in most 
of the hilly parts of Scotland and in the Hebrides. The nest 
is a slight hollow in a dry place among the heath or moss, 
irregularly strewed with fragments of withered plants. The 
eggs, four in number, are very large, ovato-pyriform, two 
inches and a twelfth long, an inch and five-twelfths in breadth, 
pale greenish-yellow or cream-coloured, irregularly spotted, 
dotted and patched with dark brown, some light purple spots 
being interspersed, and the markings larger toward the broad- 
est part. The young leave the nest presently after exclusion, 
and conceal themselves by lying flat on the ground. Their 
parents evince the greatest anxiety in their behalf, feigning 
lameness to entice the intruder away. When the young are 
able to fly, the plovers collect into flocks, but remain on the 
heaths and hill pastures until the commencement of winter. 
During continued frosts they search the sands and rocky 
shores of the sea at low water. Great numbers are killed, 
their flesh affording delicate eating, not much inferior to that 
of the woodcock. 
Yellow Plover. Green Plover. Grey Plover. Black- 
breasted Plover. Whistling Plover. 
Charadrius Pluvialis and apricarius, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 254. 
— Charadrius Pluvialis and apricarius, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 
740. — Charadrius Pluvialis, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. ii. 535. — - 
Pluvialis aurea, Golden Plover, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, iv. 
D 
