warning to all the animals within hearing to flee from the approach of danger." THE GOLDEN PLOVER. The GOLDEN PLOVER (_Charadrius auratus_, or _pluvialis_) is at once recognisable by its slender beak and feet, pointed wings, and golden plumage. The feathers on the upper portions of the body are black, thickly covered with small green or golden yellow spots, the entire under side is black. In the autumn, the throat and breast are spotted with yellowish grey; the belly is white; the black tail-feathers are streaked with white; and the black throat is decorated with a white stripe commencing at the brow and merging into the breast. The eye is dark brown, the beak black, and the foot blackish grey. This species is ten inches long and twenty-two broad; the wing measures seven inches, and the tail three inches and a half. The Golden Plovers are especially numerous in the cooler portions of the globe, becoming gradually rarer towards 57° north latitude. In England they are generally distributed, but such as occupy the southern parts go northwards to the high hills and swampy ground of Scotland and the northern counties of England during the breeding season. These migrations usually take place at night, the birds flying at a considerable height from the ground. During the day they rest or seek for food, and, strangely enough, select not their usually favourite marshes, but fields and cultivated ground. These Plovers are brisk and nimble, running with great rapidity, and flying, not only swiftly, but gracefully. During the period of incubation they indulge in a variety of elegant gyrations in the vicinity of the nest, and their plaintive, clear whistle is heard to most advantage at that season. Worms, larvæ, beetles, snails, and slugs constitute their principal nourishment, and in order to assist digestion small pebbles are also swallowed. Water would appear to be a real necessary of life to these birds, as they love to wash and cleanse their feathers in it daily. The eggs, generally four in number, have a yellowish, stone-coloured shell, marked and spotted with brownish black. These are deposited in a slight hollow in the ground, lined with a few fibres or blades of grass. The young leave the nest immediately after quitting the shell, and follow their parents for about a month, after which time they are able to fly and seek for food on their own account. It is uncertain whether the father assists in the incubation of the eggs. Macgillivray gives the following graphic description of the parental affection observable in the male birds, as witnessed by himself on some heath-covered mountain. "Presently a breeze rolls away the mist, and discloses a number of these watchful sentinels, each on his mound of faded moss, and all emitting their mellow cries the moment we offer to advance. They are males, whose mates are brooding over their eggs, or leading their down-clad and toddling chicks among the (to them) pleasant