THE RINGED PLOVER 245 
THE RINGED PLOVER 
AGIALITIS HIATICULA 
Forehead, lore, sides of the face, gorget reaching round the neck, black; a 
band across the forehead and through the eyes, throat, a broad collar, 
and all the lower parts, white; upper plumage ash-brown; outer tail- 
feather white, the next nearly so, the other feathers grey at the base, 
passing into dusky and black, tipped with white, except the two middle 
ones, which have no white tips; orbits, feet and beak orange, the latter 
tipped with black. Young—colours of the head dull; gorget incom- 
plete, ash-brown; bill dusky, tinged with orange at the base of the 
lower mandible ; feet yellowish. Length seven and a half inches. Eggs > 
olive-yellow, with numerous black and grey spots. 
On almost any part of the sea-coast of Britain, where there is a 
wide expanse of sand left at low water, a bird may often be noticed, 
not much larger than a Lark, grey above and white below, a patch 
of black on the forehead and under the eye, a white ring round the 
neck, and a black one below. If the wind be high, or rain be falling, 
the observer will be able to get near enough to see these markings ; 
for sea-birds generally are less acute observers in foul weather than 
in fair, Ona nearer approach, the bird will fly up, uttering a soft, 
sweet, plaintive whistle of two notes, and, having performed a 
rapid, semicircular flight, will probably alight at no great distance, 
and repeat its note. If it has settled on the plain sand or on the 
water’s edge, or near a tidal pool, it runs rapidly, without hopping, 
stoops its head, picks up a worm, a portion of shell-fish, or a sand- 
hopper, runs, stops, pecks, and runs again, but does not allow any 
one to come so near as before. The next time that it alights, it 
may select, perhaps, the beach 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, and is pecking among the stones a hundred yards off. Its 
name is the Ringed Plover, or Ringed Dotterel. Fishermen 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 Ringed 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 employed in the important 
business of incubation, and the males are too attentive to their 
mates to engage in picnics on the sands. The nest is a simple 
hollow in the sand, above high-water mark, or on the shingly beach ; 
and here the female lays four large, pointed eggs, which are arranged 
in the nest with all the small ends together. The young are able 
