CHARADRIID/E. 



5^: 



THE RINGED PLOVER. 



.-EoiALiTis HiATicuLA (Linnajus). 



This bird is sometimes called the Ringed Dotterel — a name to be 

 deprecated as having led to confusion with the preceding species — 

 and locally ' Stone-hatch ' or ' Sand-lark.' Throughout the British 

 Islands the Ringed Plover is generally distributed along the flat 

 portions of the coast, as well as on sandy warrens and inland 

 lakes at some distance from the sea, while on migration it is also 

 found by the banks of rivers. The birds wliich are more or less 

 resident here, and on the opposite shores of 1-" ranee and Holland, 

 as well as those which arrive from the north in autumn, are larger, 

 more bullet-headed, and duller in the colour of the mantle than 

 those which come from the south in spring, and leave us after a 

 short stay — of which, perhaps, a few remain to breed in Kent and 

 Sussex. Many individuals of this smaller race have been errone- 

 ously recorded as examples of the Little Ringed Plover, .E. curonica, 

 which will be discussed next. 



In summer the Ringed Plover has been found on Jan Mayen, 

 and even at lat. 80^ 45' (beyond Spitsbergen), as well as up to yt/ 



