Ringed Plover 7 



Ringed Plover. — This is an exceedingly common and very 

 beautiful bird. There are very few parts of our coast where he 

 is not to be found in some numbers, whether it be a rocky coast, a 

 muddy estuary, or a shingle beach ; but it is in the latter situation 

 that the bird is seen at its best. The back is a quiet dove-grey, 

 and is protective if he is sitting on his eggs among the stones ; 

 but his underparts are the reverse of protective — snowy white under- 

 neath, witli a broad pectoral band of jet black, and a white forehead 

 with a black band immediately above it, and orange-coloured legs. 

 The bird can hardly escape observation.* Here, too, as with the 

 Golden and Grey Plovers, I imagine that the old birds show 

 themseh'es as much as possible when danger is threatening their 

 offspring, and they adopt the same wiles as the other Plovers to lure 

 the intruder away from their nests. The nest is little more than a 

 depression scrabbed out among the stones ; yet, it was chosen with 

 care, and the stones surrounding a nest seem always to be carefully- 

 selected, so that they may resemble as nearly as possible the four 

 stone-coloured, spotted eggs, and, still more, the stone-coloured 

 young, with their black-tipped down. I have myself never found a 

 \'ery young nestling Ringed Plo\-er, though I have often looked for 

 them. I have found them when they are a few weeks old, but never 

 directly after they are hatched. I have specimens of them in the 

 latter state, but I obtained them all by hatching eggs out in an 

 incubator. Yet, I have constantly been over ground where I knew 

 the birds were breeding freely, and where nestlings must have been 

 quite plentiful. 



The parents adopt the method of the Golden Plover, and noisily 

 try to lure one away from the nest, while the nestlings squat motionless 

 among the shingle, and are practically invisible to human eyes. 

 The Ringed Plover, which breed on a shingle-beach, have one distinct 

 advantage. In sunny weather they are able to leave their eggs 

 unprotected much longer than other birds, for the sun falling on the 

 shingle, turns the stones into a rough sort of incubator or baking 

 oven, which retains the heat for some considerable time ; so that it 

 is only during the night or during coarse, cold weather that there is 

 any absolute necessity for the birds to sit on the eggs at all. 



The Grey and Golden Plovers, which we have just considered, 

 adopt a wedding-dress of black. Others of our Waders clothe them- 

 selves in a summer coat of rich chestnut (for example, the Godwits, 

 Knots, Curlew-Sandpipers, etc.). None of these birds breeds with 

 us, or, indeed, anywhere south of the Arctic Circle, and their eggs 

 are amongst the most cherished possessions of collectors. f The 



• When the sun is high, and the birds are quite stationary upon wet sand or upon a beach, 

 the colouring seems to afford protection, and they are very hard to locate. The dark upper parts 

 neutralize the high lights, and the white underparts neutralize the sliadows, the effect produced 

 being very " fiat," and causing the birds to merge into the background, and to become almost 

 invisible. The bold black and white local patches probaljly assist deception by breaking up the 

 rutline. — Editor. 



t The Black-tailed Codwit is an exception. It formerly bred regularly in our Kastern 

 Counties, and its breeding range does not appear anywhere to extend further north than lat. 

 65 degrees. — Editor. 



