peat-bogs that intervene between the high banks, clad with luxuriant heath not yet recovered from the effects of the winter frosts, and little meadows of cotton-grass, white as the snow-wreaths that lie on the hills. How prettily they run over the grey moss and lichens, their little feet twinkling, and their full, bright, and soft eyes gleaming as they commence their attempts to entice us away from their chosen retreats." The attempts to lure intruders from their nest, above alluded to, consist in a most excellent feigning of being desperately wounded and unable to fly, or by affecting to have lamed a leg, and thus enticing the enemy to follow the cunning bird, as it slowly retreats in an opposite direction to that occupied by its beloved progeny. When the young are able to fly, the Plovers associate in flocks, which remain on the moors till winter begins, when they quit them for pasture lands. As the season advances, and the cold becomes severe, they descend to the coast, and usually remain in the vicinity of the sea during the winter. Occasionally they are so tame that, according to the authority above quoted, they will allow a sportsman to approach within fifteen yards, and even walk around them several times in order to drive them together before taking aim. "In windy weather," continues Macgillivray, "they often rest by lying flat on the ground, and I have reason to think that at night this is the general practice. In the Hebrides I have often gone to shoot them by moonlight, when they seemed as actively engaged as in the day, which was also the case with the Snipes, but I seldom succeeded in my object, it being extremely difficult to estimate the distance at night. The numbers that at this season frequent the sandy pastures and shores of the outer Hebrides is astonishing." [Illustration: THE GOLDEN PLOVER (_Charadrius auratus_), AND THE DOTTEREL (_Eudromias Morinellus_).] The Golden Plover is in great request for the table, and is in perfection about September and October. The specific name of _pluvialis_ has been given to the Golden Plover on account of the extraordinary restlessness it exhibits before bad weather. A very remarkable instance of this characteristic is given by the Rev. R. Lubbock, in his "Fauna of Norfolk." According to that gentleman, he was much struck by the perpetual wheeling, now high, now low, of a large flock of these birds one fine bright day at the end of December. They were not still for a moment, and yet there appeared to be no cause for such unwonted disturbance. All next day they were in the same state of uproar, and on the following morning, which was as calm and mild as the preceding, the Plovers had all departed. About five o'clock in the morning, on the same day, the wind began to howl, signs of a severe tempest set in, and by the evening so much snow had fallen that in some places the drifts were six or seven feet in depth. THE RINGED PLOVER.