SO (EDICNEMUS CREPITANS. 



flocks, -which soon separate, when the different pairs make 

 arrangements for the increase of the tribe. The nest is u 

 slight hollow in an exposed place, on the bare ground or 

 turf, or among gravel or pebbles. The eggs, generally two, 

 are ovate, two inches in length, an inch and a half in breadth, 

 greyish-yellow, or pale greyish-brown, spotted, dotted, and 

 streaked with dark -brown and purplish-grey. In form and 

 colour they more nearly resemble those of the Oyster-catcher 

 than of any other British bird. The young, covered with 

 greyish down clouded with brown, run immediately after 

 birth, and conceal themselves by sitting close on the ground. 

 This bird is shy and suspicious, seldom allowing one to 

 approach within shooting distance. It runs with great 

 rapidity, and has a strong, quick flight, performed by regular 

 beats of its expanded wings. Its cry is a loud clear whistle, 

 somewhat like that of the Golden Plover, and may often be 

 heard at night by those intruding on its haunts. The great 

 size of its eyes seems to adapt it for seeking its food in the 

 dusk and by moonlight, in which respect it resembles the 

 plovers. Insects of various kinds, especially coleoptera, snails, 

 slugs, and worms, are the objects on which it principally 

 subsists ; but it is said also to devour reptiles and small 

 quadrupeds. After the breeding season, they collect into 

 small flocks, and in the end of October take their departure. 

 Mr. Salmon, in his Notice respecting the arrival of Mi- 

 gratory Birds in the neighbourhood of Thetford in Norfolk, 

 {Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. ix. p. 520), gives the following 

 account of the present species: — "The Norfolk Plover, 

 (Edicnemus crepitans Temm., is very numerously distributed 

 over all our warrens and fallow lands, during the breeding 

 season, which commences about the second week in April ; 

 the female depositing her pair of eggs upon the bare ground, 

 without any nest whatever. It is generally supposed that 

 the males take no part in the labour of incubation : this, I 

 suspect, is not the case. Wishing to procure for a friend a 

 few specimens in their breeding plumage, I employed a boy 

 to take them for me. This he did by ensnaring them on the 

 nest ; and the result was, that all those he caught during 

 the day proved, upon dissection, to be males. They assemble 



