26o THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



to dark buff in ground colour, blotched, scratched, and 

 spotted with blackish-brown, and with underlying mark- 

 ings of slate gray. Two distinct types are noticeable. 

 The first and most usual type has the markings in the 

 form of specks and streaks, with a few larger blotches 

 between ; the second is more uniforml}^ blotched and 

 spotted, the streaks being not so prominent. Average 

 measurement, \2 inch in length, by "9 inch in breadth. 

 Incubation, performed chiefly by the female, lasts from 

 twenty-one to twenty-three days. 



Diagnostic characters : The eggs of the Kentish 

 Sand Plover cannot readily be confused with those of 

 any other species breeding in our islands, the scratchy 

 character of the markings distinguishing them at a glance. 

 They might be confused with some varieties of those of 

 the Lesser Tern, but the markings are always very charac- 

 teristic, and the shape is constantly more pyriform. 



Family CHARADRIID^^. Genus .^gialitis. 



Sub-family CIIARADRIIN.-E. 



GREATER RINGED PLOVER. 



^GIALITIS HIATICULA MAJOR {Tl'lstfam). 



Single Brooded. Laying season, middle of April to beginning 



of June. 



British breeding area: The large race of the 

 Ringed Plover is widely and generally distributed on 

 the flat sandy coasts of the British Islands, from the 

 Orkneys and Shetlands in the north, the Hebrides in 

 the west, to the Channel Islands in the south. It also 

 frequents the banks of rivers and lochs in many inland 

 localities. 



