/-' 



PLOVER GROUP 



colour ranges from cream to pale buff, with sometimes a tinge of 

 green, upon which spots and small blotches of dark brown or black, 



with more or less 

 conspicuous underly- 

 ing markings of pale 

 purple, are evenly 

 distributed. 



Of the little 

 ringed plover, ^gi- 

 alitis dubia (or Ai. 

 curonic(i) a few ex- 

 amples have un- 

 doubtedly been taken 

 in England, chiefly 

 I )n or near the south- 

 ern coast ; but many 

 of the instances re- 

 corded are due to 

 the small continental 

 form of the ringed 

 plover having been mistaken for the allied species. The little ringed 

 plover, which may always be distinguished from Al. Jiiaticula by the 

 circumstance that the shaft of the first primary- quill is alone white, is 

 clearly therefore not entitled to rank as a member of the real British 

 bird-fauna. 



MiTi.i: gui.ui:n i'i.ovki 



Kentish Plover ^^^^ bird commonly known as the Kentish plover 

 (i'Egialitis ^^^^ described in the year i8oi, on the evidence of 

 alexandrina). specimens killed a iaw years earlier in Kent, under 

 the name of Charadrius cantianus (subsequently 

 altered to Aigialitis cantiaud), on the supposition that it was a new 

 species. Later it was found to be inseparable from the Cliaradrius 

 aiexandrinus, and is accordingly now known as Aigialitis alcxaudrina. 

 Its summer-range extends from Europe through western and Central 

 Asia to China and Japan, while in winter it visits Africa and India 

 (where it occasionally remains to breed), and also Australia. To the 

 British Islands it is chiefly a summer-visitor, arriving in the south- 

 eastern counties of England, which form its chief British resort in 

 May, and departing in September with its young. In addition to 

 its favourite shingle-beaches of Kent and Sussex, where it is now far 

 less common than formerly, it has been met with occasionally in 



