Watching 



Ringed Plovers 

 Redshanks 

 Peewits, etc. 



The pretty little ring -plover {.^gialitis hiaticold) 

 belongs properly to the sea-shore, but he haunts and 

 breeds inland also, and is especially the companion of 

 the stone-curlew over the stony, sandy wastes that 

 they both love so well. These little birds have both 

 a nuptial flight and a courting action on the ground. 

 In the former a pair will keep crossing and recross- 

 ing as they scud about, or they will sweep towards 

 and then away from each other in the softest and 

 prettiest manner imaginable, or each will sweep first 

 up to a height and then swiftly down again and skim 

 quite low along the ground, thus delighting the eye 

 with the contrast. Their flight is all in graceful 

 sweeps, for even when they beat the air with their 

 slender, pointed pinions, it is rather as though they 

 kissed than beat it, and they seem all the while to be 

 sweeping on without effort, so soft is their motion. 



