258 CHARADRIID^. 



the sea at its ebb retires to a distance, leaving extensive 

 surfaces of sand or shingle. This bird also frequents the 

 sides of large rivers, and is not unfrequently found about 

 the margin of inland lakes and large ponds. The observa- 

 tions of Scales, Hoy and Salmon, have long since established 

 the fact of its breeding on the sandy warrens of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, at a considerable distance from the sea ; and, from the 

 more recent and interesting experiences of Professor Newton 

 and his brother published in Mr. Stevenson's ' Birds of Nor- 

 folk,' it appears that the 7th February is the earliest, and 

 the 1st September the latest, date on which the birds were 

 observed on Thetford Warren, where an egg has been taken 

 so early as the 23rd March. By the middle of April laying 

 has become general, and there can be little doubt that the 

 same bird lays more than once in the same season, even when 

 she has not been deprived of the first clutch. Incubated 

 eggs and freshly-hatched young have been found by the 

 Editor so late as the first week in August. In the north of 

 England, and in Scotland, where the species is exceedingly 

 abundant, and breeds on the shores of the inland lakes, as 

 well as by the sea, nesting takes place somewhat later ; and 

 the same remarks will apply to a great part of Ireland. 



The nest is only a slight hollow in the sand, in which its 

 four eggs are deposited ; but sometimes this cavity is lined 

 or covered with a number of small stones about the size of 

 peas, upon which the eggs are laid, and this habit has 

 gained for the Ringed Plover in some counties the provincial 

 name of Stone-hatch.* Many deposit their eggs in any acci- 

 dental depression on a bank of sand, broken shells, or 

 shingles above high-water mark. The eggs, which measure 

 about 1'4 by 1 inch, are of a pale buff or cream-colour, 

 spotted and streaked with ash blue and black. This bird 

 has been known to lay four eggs four times iu succession in 

 the same season — each set, when completed, being taken 

 away ; the later ones were smaller than usual, and altered 

 in form and markings, a natural consequence of exhaus- 



It is frequeutly called the Ringed Dotterel : a name which, shortened to 

 Dotterel, has often given rise to misunderstandings. 



