82 BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



and dull-white under-parts, the latter broken, however, 

 by a dark collar — technically a pectoral band — which is 

 the most noticeable feature of the plumage. In the 

 adult of the typical species this is a broad blackish 

 band ; in the Little Ringed Plover, a rare wanderer to 

 our shores from eastern Europe, it is very much narrower ; 

 in the Kentish Plover, one of the most local of our 

 breeding-birds, the collar is incomplete, not meeting in 

 front ; in the rather larger Killdeer Plover, an exceptional 

 visitor from North America, where it is abundant and 

 widespread, the collar is double, consisting of two nan-ow 

 bands crossing the breast parallel to each other. 



Here we have a good example of a well-marked genus 

 containing a number of species, showing so much general 

 resemblance that no one would hesitate to say that they 

 had all sprung from a common stock at a comparatively 

 recent date. Thus our genus is a natural group. The 

 species in it, so far as we have enumerated them, differ 

 in no very fundamental respects, but are nevertheless 

 perfectly distinct and easily recognisable. But here comes 

 the difficulty ; the very species we have under special 

 consideration is capable of subdivision into two races 

 even within our own area. There is the common form, 

 with us throughout the year, and there is a smaller, 

 brighter, and less ' bullet-headed ' race which visits some 

 of our coasts in spring. This latter form must not be 

 confused with the true Little Ringed Plover, a distinct 

 species already referred to. 



Now to these two races of the Ringed Plover we 

 cannot logically give the same specific rank that we have 

 already granted to the half-dozen perfectly well - defined 

 forms that we have enumerated. Yet, on the other hand, 

 we cannot refuse to recognise the difference between such 

 races if we wish to make any frirther progress in piecing 



