246 THE KENTISH PLOVER 
to run as soon as they break the shell; but, having no power of 
flight for a long time, avoid impending danger by scattering and 
_ hiding among the stones. The old bird, on such occasions, uses 
her wings ; but not to desert her charge. She flies up to the intruder, 
and, like other members of the same family, endeavours to entice 
him away by counterfeiting lameness or some injury. 
The Ringed Plover sometimes goes inland to rear her young, and 
lays her eggs in a sandy warren, on the bank of a river or the margin 
ofalake; but when the young are able to fly, old and young together 
repair to the seashore, collecting in flocks, and for the most part 
‘continuing to congregate until the following spring. Their flight is 
rapid and sweeping, consisting of a succession of curves, while per- 
forming which they show sometimes their upper grey plumage, and 
at other times the under, which is of a dazzling white. Occasionally, 
too, as they wheel from one tack to another, every bird is lost sight 
of, owing to the perfect unanimity with which, at the same instant, 
they alter their course, and to the incapacity of the human eye to 
follow the rapid change from a dark hue to a light. 
Not unfrequently one falls in with a solitary individual which 
has been left behind by its companions, or has strayed from the 
flock. Such a bird, when disturbed, utters its whistle more fre- 
quently than on ordinary occasions, and, as its note is not difficult 
of imitation, I have often enticed a stray bird to fly close up to me, 
answering all the while. But it has rarely happened that I have 
succeeded in practising the deception on the same bird a second 
time. 
THE KENTISH PLOVER 
ZEGIALITIS CANTIANA 
Forehead, a band over each eye, chin, cheeks, and under parts, white; upper 
part of the forehead, a band from the base of the beak extending through 
the eye, and a large spot on each side of the breast, black ; head and nape 
light brownish red; rest of the upper plumage ash-brown; two outer 
tail-feathers white, the third whitish, the rest brown; beak, irides, and 
feet, brown. Female wants the black spot on the forehead, and the other 
parts black in the male are replaced by ash-brown. Length six and a 
half inches. Eggs olive-yellow, spotted and speckled with black. 
THE Kentish Plover differs from the preceding in its inferior size, 
in having a narrower stripe of black on the cheeks, and in wanting 
the black ring round the neck. It is found from time to time in 
various parts of the country, breeding in Kent, Sussex and the 
Channel Islands, but is most abundant on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean. Its habits resemble closely those of the allied species. 
On the authority of the Greek historian Herodotus, a little bird 
is found in Egypt called the Tréchilus, which is noted for the friendly 
