PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 91 



just before, but on meeting the friend he learnt that the bird 

 shot at was a tern, not a dotterel. "But," the friend added, 

 "I found a nest and the young of that bird as I came along." 

 They went back, and it was found to be within three yards 

 of the spot from whence Edward had put up his bird, 

 evidently the mother, and evidently not a "dotterel" in the 

 depreciative sense. 



Another pretty little plover is the ringed plover. There 

 are two kinds, major and minor. The so-called "ring" is 

 a circlet, more or less complete, of black feathers round the 

 breast and shoulders with a thinner white one above round 

 the neck. The main colouring on the back is the slaty grey 

 of so many of these birds, and that below white. These are 

 perhaps the shortest-billed of all the plover tribe. Very 

 dainty little creatures they are, running swiftly, flying 

 gracefully, and sometimes whistling shrilly when on the wing. 

 There are at least a dozen varieties of ringed plovers known 

 to naturalists. yE'^/(7//7/s^/rt^c/c///sisanother of them common 

 in China from north to south. This is known to some as 

 Hodgson's ringed plover. As a rule it is not much more 

 than six inches long. Still another, ^. MongoUciis, or the 

 Mongolian plover, is very common over many parts of Asia 

 and even Australia. A great many find their way to the 

 Shanghai market. JE. cantianus may be known by the white 

 ring round the neck and an incomplete black one. This is 

 one of the so-called sand plovers of which there are many 

 species scattered about the world. They are all shore birds. 



More or less allied to the plovers are the sandpipers. 

 The commonest is the jerky little gentleman which gets up 

 in front of one's houseboat when it is going up a creek, flies 

 on a hundred yards or so just skimming over the surface of 

 the water and then alights, to repeat the operation till it 

 is tired of the game, when it doubles back in order to be able 

 to indulge its entomological researches undisturbed till the 

 next boat comes along. Most local sportsmen know it as the 

 snippet. It stays with us throughout the year, and may often 

 be observed busily searching along the water's edge for 

 food during the summer season. 



A much bigger bird is the large-billed knot, Tringa 

 crassii'osfris, which is comparable in size with the golden 

 plover. The ordinary knot, Tringa canutiis might, but for 

 its short bill, be mistaken for a snipe. Its classical title gives 

 an excuse for deriving its English name from Canute, the 

 old form of which was Cnut or Knut. So far as I know, 

 however, there is no sufficient ground for unquestioning 

 acceptance of this derivation. T. acuminata, or the russet- 

 headed sandpiper, is another visitor of this wide genus. 

 T. alpina is the well-known dunlin, called also T. cincliis. 



