RINGED PLOVER 217 
found gizzards filled with remains of small lustrous blue- 
black beetles, the bodies of which measured 3 mm. in 
length; in many other cases I found the gizzards to 
contain quantities of sand-hoppers. Fine grit is generally 
present. 
Voice.—This little bird possesses a tuneful and plaintive 
voice. It seems to utter the syllables chii-e-chii-e, in a 
pleading and shghtly querulous tone. 
Nest.—The position and construction of the nest varies 
considerably. In some cases the eggs are deposited on 
almost level sand or gravel, the surface being shghtly 
scraped to prevent them from rolling away. In other 
cases—more usual in my experience—a definite nest is 
attempted, the deeper and more cup-shaped hollow being 
neatly lined with fragments of shells and pebbles (Plate 
Oe tie. Lh). Ti have found the nest in short wet slob- 
land grass thickly top-dressed with shmy green and white 
seaweed (Plate XIV., fig. 2). Away from the tide the 
Ringed Plover nests on dry warrens, also on the pebbly 
and sandy shores and islands of fresh-water lakes and 
rivers. 
The eggs, four in number, are pear-shaped and large tor 
the size of the bird. The ground-colour ranges from dull 
cream to warm stone or fawn-colour, the dark brown and 
black markings taking as a rule the form of spots; in some 
instances these are largely replaced by streaks and scrolls.’ 
The eggs are generally arranged in the nest with their 
pointed ends meeting in the centre like those of other 
waders,’ but eggs freshly laid, z.e., before the female has 
commenced to incubate, may be found placed irregularly 
(Plate XIV., fig. 2). 
Incubation begins about the middle of April, but the 
birds arrive in March at their breeding-grounds, where they 
may be seen flying to and fro, while “the male, at repeated 
intervals, utters his pleasing love-call. 
At the beginning of incubation the female sits lightly, 
slipping off her eggs vat the sight of an intruder two hundred 
yards away. The male often keeps some distance off, so 
' At Newcastle beach, co. Wicklow, I found a nest which contained 
three half-hatched eggs (I presume the full clutch, unless one had 
been abstracted), abnormally light in the ground-colour, more streaked 
and scrolled than usual, more elongated in shape and larger, with the 
narrow ends not so pointed as usual. 
