Gould commented that in autumn 'the Golden Plover, both adults and young, leave the misty mountain-side, and assembling in flocks...may now be seen in all the open moorlands, fallow fields, commons and great marshes...and on the sandhills near the seashore and the muddy flats left by the receding tide.'

The adult birds are depicted in winter plumage, another watercolour lot 129, shows summer plumage.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds northern Eurasia from Iceland, Faeroes, British Isles, Scandinavia east across northern Russia and northern Siberia to Yamal peninsula and lower Yenisei river. Winters from west and south Europe, Mediterranean region east to Iranian Gulf and rarely India