GOLDEN PLOVER.
ClIARADRIUS PLÜFIALIS.
GOLDEN Plovers breed in considerable numbers en the Grouse-moors of many of the northern counties of the
Highlands; T have come across their haunts repeatedly in Perthshire. Boss •hire, Sutherland, and Caithness,
as well as in the Western Islands.
A late snow-storm in the spring appears occasionally to put an almost entire stop to their nesting
operations and to drive most of these birds from the country. While living in GlenlyOB, in Perthshire, where
I rented the Innerwiek shootings, I nolieed there were hundreds of pairs of this specie*, on the moors in 1SGU ;
but the weather being exceedingly hot, I deferred procuring any of the downy young for specimens, as it
was utterly impossible that they could make the journey to the taxidermist at Brighton without decomposition
setting in. I then determined to bring, next season, a naturalist to the glen, who could attend to them the
day they were obtained. On reaching Imiorwiek the following year in June, I learned from the keepers that
the Golden Plovers had arrived at the usual time aud in their accustomed numbers: a heavy fall of snow,
however, bad driven nearly the whole of them away, and but very low had returned to breed oil the hills; I
do not think there were above eight or ten pairs engaged in nesting operations over the whole stretch of ground.
After a week's hard work, we succeeded in finding t hrce broods and one nest of eggs ; in no single instance did
the family consist of more than two juveniles, and this fact tended to prove the clfects of the cold and the
hardships to which the newly hatched youngsters had been exposed. Wo found it almost impossible lo watch
the old birds settle to their young, as they always kept at some distance from the spot where their treasures
were concealed; and it was eventually discovered that nut until after the parent birds had been shot could the
whereabouts of the juveniles be detected. While the old birds are flying round, the young remain perfectly
quiet; in a few minutes, however, after they are killed the tiny mites commence calling. The note is very
low, and when the cry seems to IK- uttered at a distance of about twenty or thirty yards the small bird is
generally at your feel. After procuring all the little Plovers needed, we were preparing to turn down
LiU towards the lodge, when a pair of old birds and a couple of downy juveniles came in view, making
their way across a largo patch of frozen snow in a deep gully in the sido of the hill. The family
were allowed to depart unmolested, their actions being carefully watched till they disappeared from sight
in the black peat-moss beyond the snow-drift—and a very pretty sight it was. There is little doubt
that in this season nearly the whole, with the exception of the most backward, of the birds must have
laid before the snow fell, and Ihe greater part, if not all, of their eggs have been destroyed.
To obtain specimens of the old birds in their greatest beauty, they must bo shot some time before
they commence their nesting operations; the glossy black feathers then rapidly become speckled with
white, and the general brightness of the plumage fades and disappears as soon as the cares of a family
are undertaken.
I have also repeatedly observed Golden Plovers very tame, resting in the fields and paying little