70 



PLOVER GROUP 



The ringed plover, of which the scientific name has been altered 

 in recent British Museum publications to Ai. Jiiaticola, is mainly a 

 migratory species, ranging throughout Europe and western and 

 Central Asia as far as Lake Baikal, in summer wandering even as 

 far north as Jan Mayen, Spitzbergen, and Greenland, and even 

 occurring on the western coast of America near Cumberland Bay, 

 while in winter it travels mainly to Africa, although a few individuals 

 stray into north-western India. In the British Islands it is to be 

 met with on the coasts, where it breeds on pebbly beaches, as it also 



does on the shores of 

 some lakes, while it may 

 be seen on open ground 

 inland during migration. 

 Such individuals of the 

 species as remain per- 

 manently in Great 

 Britain and Ireland are, 

 as a rule, larger than the 

 typical continental form, 

 examples of which not 

 un frequently however, 

 visit our southern coasts. 

 In Ireland, where it 

 breeds both on the coasts 

 and around lakes, its 

 numbers are considerably augmented in winter by immigrants from 

 the north. 



The species is one of those which do not assume a special breeding- 

 plumage, and in which the two sexes are alike ; the entire length of 

 the bird being 7^ inches. As regards the plumage, the most distinctive 

 feature is that the shafts of all the primaries are white near the tips. 

 I^'or the rest it will suffice to state that the general colour of the upper- 

 parts is light brown, the forehead being white bordered above by 

 black, the space in front of the eye and the ear-coverts black, the 

 neck collared with white, below which is a black gorget, followed by 

 the white of the under-parts. White tips distinguish the greater 

 wing -coverts, while the dark brown primaries have, as already 

 mentioned, the shafts near the tips marked with white flecks, with 

 a bar across the wing when extended. Birds of the year lack the 

 black on the head and upper part of the breast. The young chick 

 is white, mottled above with grey and buff, and showing a dark stripe 



KINCKI) IM.OVKK. 



