234 BULLETIN 146^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the Alaskan specimen is recorded as " Gharadrms alexandrinus 

 Pall." There is also a specimen in the United States National 

 Museum (No. 39523) which is said to have been taken at San Fran- 

 cisco, but some doubt appertains to the latter record. 



Spring. — The range of this species does not extend far to the 

 north in western Europe and it is only a rare straggler to the British 

 Isles. In northern Germany it appears in fair numbers on the 

 larger rivers and at lakesides, about the middje of March, but except 

 in southern Sweden few cross the Baltic to breed. 



Courtshiy. — H. F. Witherby (1919) has some interesting notes 

 on this species which was breeding in company with the Kentish 

 plover {Charadrius alexandrinus) near Dunkerque, in northern 

 France. 



On April 28 the little ringed plovers were flying round after each other, 

 with a beautiful slow, long, flap of the wings, much like the flight of a large 

 butterfly and uttering a pleasing little song. This was evidently a " courtship " 

 action and we found many " scoops " in the sand, but no eggs. 



Liebe describes the song flight as beginning with a zigzag oblique 

 ascent, followed by short horizontal flights at various angles over 

 the gravelly bed where the hen is sitting, uttering meantime his musi- 

 cal whistle, which is answered by the bird beneath, and ending in a 

 sharp descent in a curve toward the water's edge and thence with 

 low, skimming flight to the hen. The little ring plover is a much 

 more demonstrative and noisy species than the ringed pjover and 

 when its breeding haunts are approached .instead of running off 

 wdth a low whistle and then flying a short distance ahead, it flies 

 round and round the intruder with loud repeated whistling notes. 

 Naumann (1887) expresses the pairing song by the words " duh^ du 

 dull lull luUidlul^'' taken in slow time and ending with a wonderful 

 trill only to be heard on the breeding ground. 



Nesting. — Continental writers lay much stress on the fact that 

 this bird by preference always makes the nest in gravelly patches 

 rather than in sand. This is not invariably the case, as the bird 

 builds freely on sand banks in rivers where there is no shingle or 

 gravel, and at times also on dry mud. It maj'^ be found nesting far 

 inland, but nearly always in the neighborhood of water and shows 

 a decided preference for the shores of fresh-water lakes and the 

 larger rivers rather than the seashore. 



Eggs. — The normal clutch is four, though three is not an uncom- 

 mon number, and generallj^ they are readily distinguishable from 

 those of the other sand plovers. They are more pyriform in shape 

 than those of the Kentish plover, and average less in size than 

 either of the two other common European species. In cojor the 



