THE RINGED PLOVER. 



387 



of shells and pebbles above high-water mark. Then it 

 becomes at once invisible ; or, if the observer be very 

 keen-sighted, he may be able to detect it while it is in 

 motion, but then only. Most probably, let him mark ever 

 so accurately with his eye the exact spot on which he saw 

 it alight, and let him walk up to the spot without once 

 averting his eye, he will, on his arrival, find it gone. It 

 has run ahead with a speed marvellous in so small a biped, 



THE RINGED PLOVER. 



and is pecking among the stones a hundred yards off. Its 

 name is the Einged Plover, or Einged Dotterel. Fisher- 

 men on the coast call it a Stone-runner, a most appropriate 

 name ; others call it a Sea Lark. In ornithological works 

 it is described under the former of these names. 



The Einged Plover frequents the shores of Great Britain 

 all the year round. It is a social bird, but less so in 

 spring than at any other season ; for the females are then 



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