THE RINGED PLOVER 245 



THE RINGED PLOVER 



.EGIALITIS 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, wliere 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. On a 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 

 v/ater's edge, or near a tidal pool, it runs rapidly, without hopping, 

 stoops its head, picks up a worm, a portion of sheU-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. Fisliermen 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 beacli ; 

 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 



