NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 229 



Plover. Average measurement, 1*3 inch in length, by 

 •9 inch in breadth. Incubation, performed by both 

 sexes, lasts about three weeks. 



Diagnostic characters : The eggs of the Ringed 

 Plover do not differ in colour from those of the Greater 

 Ringed Plov^er, but are perceptibly smaller in size. The 

 locality is of great importance in their identification. 



Family CHARADRIID.4^. Genus ^gialitis. 



Sub-family CHARADRIINAi. 



LITTLE RINGED PLOVER. 



^^i^GiALiTis MINOR ( Wolf a?id Meyer). 



(British : Rare abnormal spring and autumn migrant.) 



Single Brooded. Laying season, May and first half of Ju!.e. 



Breeding area: PaLnearctic region. The Little 

 Ringed Plover breeds throughout Europe and Palsearctic 

 Asia south of lat. 6o^ and south of the Mediterranean, in 

 Africa north of the Great Desert, and possibly in the 

 Canaries, although Mr. Meade Waldo does not record 

 this species. 



Breeding habits : In the more northerly portions 

 of its distribution the Little Ringed Plover is a migrant, 

 retiring south to Africa in winter, and returning north 

 again in April. This bird is not so gregarious as the 

 Ringed Plovers, even in winter, but is to a certain extent 

 social, numbers of pairs frequenting a comparatively 

 small area. The favourite breeding haunts of this Plover 

 are the sandy banks of rivers and inland lakes, low flat 

 islands, and less frequently sand dunes and shingly 



