Plover

“ It is worthy of mention that the bracken-covered areas of our large warrens are not beloved of the Ringed Plover, but that it haunts stone-covered patches which are perfectly open. In such spots it is almost impossible to discover the Ringed Plover when motionless; when running the eye is attracted by the action. If one wanders too near the nest both birds will fly round and round the intruder's head, uttering their short mellow whistle. And if there should be nestlings they will feign a broken wing—anything to draw attention to themselves rather than their young. ”

“ The rushes it lives amongst rise, smooth as a polished pipe-stem, vertically from water too deep for the bird to wade in; yet it goes up to the summit and down to the surface, moving freely and briskly about amongst them, or runs in a straight line through them almost as rapidly as a Plover can run over the bare level ground. ”

“ The beautiful little ringed plover, or sea-lark, is another of our breeding species. It is permanently resident on our coasts, and is one of the most interesting of British shore-birds. At no time infrequent, there is a considerable accession in winter; and it is a pretty sight to watch a flock of these feeding among sand or shingle, or even upon a mud-flat. It is in such spots, too, that it lays its creamy-spotted eggs (pointed like those of all plovers) , often without the slightest semblance of a nest. No shore bird is as nimble as the ringed plover. ”

“ We saw the rare piping plover, whose nest I was afterwards to find in Upper Canada, black skimmers, with their strange slant-cut beaks, black tern, least tern, loons, black-bellied plover, and everywhere throughout the salt-meadows enormous great-blue herons.
This was the last trip of our quartette for the [Pg 119] summer, and we are looking forward to many more springs and summers among the bird-folk. Let me end as I began—go bird’s-nesting. Escape into the open from these narrow in-door days, and learn the way to where the wild-folk dwell. Seek their paterans and share their secrets. ”

“ The hedge is a guide, but the ruts are deep, and it still needs slow and careful walking. Wee-ah-wee! Up from the dusky surface of the arable field springs a plover, and the notes are immediately repeated by another. They can just be seen as darker bodies against the shadow as they fly overhead. Wee-ah-wee! The sound grows fainter as they fetch a longer circle in the gloom.
There is another winter resort of plovers in the valley where a barren waste was ploughed some years ago. A few furze bushes still stand in the hedges about it, and the corners are full of rushes. ”

“ When this flock started, they had circled and wheeled and swooped in the wonderful evolutions of their kind, but had finally swung into their journey-gait—and when a plover settles down to straight flying, it would seem to be safe from anything slower than a bullet. ”

“ I did think you knew the difference between a duck of any sort and a plover!"
"You call 'em plov——?"
Here one of the birds stretched its neck, flapped its wings, gave a hop and a short run, plover-ways, and finished with the typical harsh note.
"Great Donald! you're right, man!" finished the boy, in a mortified tone and with a considerable amount of disgust.
"Oh, well," he resumed, after a moment's silence, "a few plover won't come amiss, especially if we don't collar any more duck. Like 'em myself, grilled, as well as anything; they've such plump little breasts. Pull on, Joe." ”

“ The bird is in no way adapted to transport its young through the air.
There are upwards of a dozen species of British plover; birds interesting to the naturalist, dear to the heart of the shore-shooter and to the sportsman of the marshes. Some of these are summer visitants to our shores, others come in winter, while a few stay with us throughout the year. The common green plover or peewit, with its crest, its peculiarly rounded wings, its plaintive cry, is the best known; and this species breeds with us, as the abundance of its eggs shows. ”

“ Is there a little consciousness of the spring-freshened colours of his plumage and pride in the dainty touch of his wings on the sweet wind? His love is watching his wayward course. He prolongs it. He has but a few yards to fly to reach the well-known feeding-ground by the brook where the grass is short; perhaps it has been eaten off by sheep. It is a straight and easy line—as a starling would fly. The plover thinks nothing of a straight line: he winds first with the curve of the hedge, then rises, uttering his cry, aslant, wheels, and returns ”

“ From the crest of the beach above or from the lonely sand dunes beyond comes the mellow whistle of the plover, disturbed in his reveries; out over the blue waters a few terns are flitting about or screaming in anxiety for their, now well grown, young perched on the beach. Flocks of small shore birds hurry past well out over the breakers, flashing light or dark, as they wheel and turn ”

“ A plover and his wife once lived by the shore of the sea, the mighty sea that swarms with fish, crocodiles, turtles, sharks, porpoises, pearl oysters, shellfish, and other teeming life. The plover was called Sprawl, and his wife's name was Constance. ”

“ They, too, are finding the tide a trouble, and no doubt are wishing the human intruder would take himself off. Now, in spite of my presence, one of them follows the other toward the land, scurrying from one bit of tussock to another, half wading, half swimming. Time and tide wait for no bird. Both they and the plover have given up all thoughts of eating. ”

“ P. Belon (1555) says that the name Pluvier is bestowed “pour ce qu'on le prend mieux en temps pluvieux qu'en nulle autre saison,” which is not in accordance with modern observation, for in rainy weather plovers are wilder and harder to approach than in fine. Others have thought it is from the spotted (as though with rain-drops) upper plumage of two of the commonest species of plovers, to which the name especially belongs—the Charadrius pluvialis of Linnaeus, or golden plover, and the Squatarola helvetica of recent ornithologists, or grey plover. ”

“ The vast flocks of plovers that congregate in autumn are said to be growing in numbers. Hundreds of thousands of eggs are collected annually; bunches of green plover are displayed at the gameshops during the autumn; and yet there are more of these birds in England than ever there were. This may be accounted for by the closeness with which the plover conforms to its environment through every season. The plover is dainty eating, as are also its eggs. "To live like a plover"—meaning to live on the wind—is a saying of no aptitude. All the species are voracious feeders on substantials. ”

“ But perhaps the commonest is the plover, who just brings together a few straws on the mud of a field and lays her eggs there without any protection; yet the eggs are so like the mud-coloured surroundings that you might hunt for a long time, and even walk over them without seeing them. ”

“ The long legged plover and the sanderling are waders, and belong more immediately to the water birds, to which we refer them; the great plover and the lapwing we consider as entirely connected with birds of the plover kind ”

“ The grey plover is a bird of almost circumpolar range, breeding in the far north of America, Asia and eastern Europe, frequenting in spring and autumn the coasts of the more temperate parts of each continent, and generally retiring farther southward in winter—examples not infrequently reaching Cape Colony, Ceylon, Australia and even Tasmania. ”

“ While these handsome plover migrate to some extent, and sometimes in large flocks, through the interior of the United States, they are chiefly and most abundantly found on the coast. This species has a very small hind toe. It is a very familiar bird to sportsmen
and gunners, to whom it is generally known by the names of "Bull-head," or "Beetle-head Plover." They are very numerous in the fall, during which season the underparts are entirely white. The eggs are either laid upon the bare ground or upon a slight lining of grass-es of dead leaves. ”

“ The flocks of golden plover are usually smaller than those of green, and are more compact. When feeding together the two kinds are not easily discriminated. The moment they take wing, however, a difference is detected; the golden plover flying straight and quick, often in a V-shaped bunch; the green going loosely and without apparent order. All plover are restless and shifting before a change of weather, and when this is for the worse the golden plover always fly south. They are delicate birds, in fact, and little fitted to withstand the rigours of our northern climate. ”

“ The golden plover gets its common name from the rich yellow spots that decorate its upper parts. All the species of the genus to which it belongs undergo a very remarkable change of plumage every year: in winter the whole under parts are pure white; in spring the white changes to intense black, and this nuptial, or summer dress, lasts until the autumn moult, when the winter white is resumed. ”

“ Although the plover has generally been classed with those birds whose business is wholly among water, we cannot help considering the greater part of them as partaking entirely of the nature of land birds. ”

“ If we step on shore, the 'Charadrius caruncula', a species of plover, a most plaguy sort of "public-spirited individual", follows you, flying overhead, and is most persevering in its attempts to give fair warning to all the animals within hearing to flee from the approaching danger. ”

“ Another notable species, the golden plover, is a cosmopolitan, and a remarkable migrant, journeying from its arctic breeding place to the tropics, not only overland, but across thousands of miles of ocean, as from Nova Scotia direct to Bermuda, and Alaska to Hawaii. The crested "lapwing" of Europe is another famous species. The plovers have short bills and live on insects ”

“ An Old World plover (Vanellus cristatus) , differing from the true plovers chiefly in having a hind toe. It is numerous in summer in all the temperate parts of Europe and Asia, but the majority migrate southward in winter. It is very plover-like in form and habits, and among the most beautiful of shore-birds. The head, which is surmounted with a beautiful crest, is black; the throat black in summer and white in winter ”

“ The plover is a fine bird, and is found in great numbers upon the plains and in the cultivated fields of the islands. Plovers are very shy and wary, but they have ingenious enemies to deal with. A waggon or carriage of some sort is made use of to approach them, and then they are easily killed. ”

“ There are numerous kinds of plover that make their migratory passages along our coasts; but the one to which I refer, while to the epicure it ranks almost, if not absolutely, the first upon the list, and affords, by the swiftness of its flight and the eccentricity of its habits, a prize not unworthy of the highest efforts of the sportsman, has been the victim of many a misnomer, but is correctly known by the appellation American Golden Plover, Charadrius pluvialis (P.) . The Plover-family is large and of high respectability ”

“ If at this period, or during incubation, a person approaches their retreats, the male especially, but frequently the female also, flies up to meet the intruder, settles on a tuft near him, or runs along and uses the same artifices for decoying him from the nest or young as the Plover or Ring Dotterel. When the young are fledged, the birds gather into small flocks, which often in the evenings unite into larger, and join those of the Golden Plover. They rest at night on the smoother parts of the heath, and both species, when resting by day, either stand or lie on the ground. ”

“ The Plover is gregarious, and usually frequents the marshes and the muddy borders of rivers, where it seeks its food, consisting of aquatic insects and worms. Some species, however, live on dry sandy shores, and others breed on the mountains. ”

“ When a flock was passing high overhead, any sudden noise—a shout, or the near report of a gun—would make the whole flock swoop down like a flash close to the water. Plover have the same habit when they first arrive from Labrador, but I have hunted in vain for any satisfactory explanation of the thing.
As the birds feed a mussel will sometimes close his shells hard on some careless duck's tongue or bill in such a way that he cannot be crushed or swallowed or broken against the rocks. In that case the bird, if he knows the secret, will fly to fresh water and drown his tormentor. ”

“ My specimens were obtained from the provinces bordering the Plata. On the great swampy plains and fens which lie between Buenos Ayres and Bahia Blanca, it is very numerous in small, and occasionally, in large flocks. This plover, which appears as if mounted on stilts, has been wrongfully accused of inelegance; when wading about in shallow water, which is its favourite resort, its gait is far from awkward. ”

“ On the coast it is apt to be fishy, but when shot inland, and on upland pastures, of superior quality.
The American Golden Plover, Charadrius Marmoratus, “the Frost bird;” a very beautiful species, and of rare excellence when killed on the upland, where it is found more frequently and more abundantly than on the shore. ”