KENTISH PLOVER 287 



Kentish Plover. 

 iEgialitis cantiana. 



Forehead, stripe above the eye, chin, cheeks, and under parts 

 white ; upper part of forehead, a band from the base of the bill 

 extending through the eye, and a large spot on each side of the 

 breast, black ; head and nape light brownish red ; upper plumage 

 ash-brown ; two outer tail-feathers white. Length, six inches and 

 chree-quarters. The female is without the black on the fore-crown, 

 her neck patches are brown instead of black; and her colours 

 duller than in the male. 



This species, in appearance a small and pale -coloured ringed 

 plover, is a summer visitor to the south-east and east coasts of 

 England from Sussex to Yorkshire, and received its name of 

 Kentish plover when first described, nearly a century ago, by 

 Latham, from specimens obtained at Sandwich. Its sojourn in 

 this country is a short one, excepting on the Sussex and Kentish 

 coasts, where a few pairs remain to breed; but as a breeding 

 species the bird has now been almost extirpated by the egg- 

 collector — the soulless Philistine who is without any feeling for 

 wild nature, and whose vulgar ambition it is to fill a cabinet with 

 the faded shells of eggs which he can label * British-taken.' 



The Kentish plover has a very extensive distribution in Europe, 

 Africa, and Asia. Li its habits it resembles the ringed plover, and 

 lays its three, and sometimes four, eggs in a slight depression among 

 the fine shingle or broken shells. The eggs are of a yellowish stone- 

 colour, spotted and scratched with black. 



Ringed Plover. 

 -^gialitis hiaticula. 



Forehead, lores, and gorget reaching round the neck black ; a 

 band across the forehead, a stripe over each eye, broad collar, and 

 lower parts, white ; nape and upper parts hair brown ; outer tail- 

 feathers white ; bill, orbits, and feet orange. Length, seven inches 

 and three-quarters. In the female the black collar is less well 

 defined. 



