W. p. PYCRAFT: NEST OF THE RINGED PLOVER. 875 



sion or be formed by the bird, and lined, or not as the case 

 may be, with a few small stones, probably picked up as 

 they lay within reach of the beak as the cup is being- 

 made (see Fig. 1). In Fig\ 2, the work of pebble collecting- 

 has apparently been more deliberate, and this is still more 

 evident in Fig-. 8. In Figs. 4-5, a yet more deliberate and 

 ambitious nest has been made, the one lined with broken 

 shells, apparently collected from a distance around the 



Fig. 1. — Nest of Ringed Plover : a hollow scooped out in shingle. 

 (Photographed by C. W. Colthrup.) 



nest — the other with small sticks. Occasionally the 

 droiDpings of rabbits are emj)loyed, and Col. Feilden has 

 recorded an instance where the green fleshy leaves and 

 stems of Atriplex littoralis were used. 



Now, two questions are suggested by these facts. 

 Firstly, what is the stimulus to the formation of a nest 

 of any sort, in this species, seeing that so many individuals 



