EINGED PLOVEE. 3 



season, the little colony, instead of being scared completely away, merely shifted 

 about three hundred yards southwards, a position which it still continues to 

 occupy. In the spring of 1859 I found a solitary nest near Swina Ness, and 

 watched it until the four young birds were hatched, when the nest was deserted 

 for the remainder of the year. The same thing happened the next spring, and 

 even the next to that, after which I never saw the birds near the spot again ; thus 

 I became acquainted with two important facts in the history of this species, — 

 first, that it will return annually to the same nest ; and secondly, that it is single- 

 brooded, although fresh eggs are to be found from the middle of April to the 

 beginning of July. The sitting bird usually runs from the nest instead of taking 

 wing, but no one seems to have clearly made out whether or not it alights at a 

 distance from the nest upon its return, as the Skylark does. I remember, however, 

 accidentally disturbing a Ringed Plover from its nest one snowy morning early in 

 May. The bird, as usual, ran directly away, the footprints thus made being the 

 only ones upon the otherwise undisturbed surface of the snow in the immediate 

 vicinity of the nest, although there were numerous others in all directions a few 

 yards distant. After remaining in a neighbouring cottage for about ten minutes, 

 during which time no other shower had occurred, 1 retiurned to the nest, and there 

 found the bird upon the eggs, the return track being visible to the very brink. 

 Notwithstanding the unfavourable state of the weather, the whole foiu: young 

 ones came forth in due time. At a very early stage of incubation, the bird usually 

 runs rapidly away ; but as the time of hatching approaches, the usual device of 

 feigning lameness or a broken wing is invariably resorted to, and so helpless does 

 the bird appear that it is difficult to avoid an occasional attempt to throw one's 

 hat over it. No one who witnesses the singular performance for the first time 

 fails to fall into ecstacies of pity and admiration at the perfect manner in which 

 the clever little bird acts its part." 



Mr. Frank Brownsword writes * : — " The following remarkable instance of 

 persistent brooding of a Ringed Plover, ^gialitis hiaticula, came under my 

 observation during the past breeding-season, at St. Anne's-on-the-Sea, Lancashire : 

 — On May 26th, whilst strolling along the beach on the look-out for nests, I 

 observed a Ringed Plover running off' in a suspicious manner about twenty 

 yards away on the shingle, and on coming to the spot, I found a nest containing 

 four corks, — ordinary beer-bottle corks, which lie about the beach in hundreds. 

 Thinking this the trick of some school-boy I threw the corks away, and gave the 

 matter no further thought. However, three or four days after, passing the same 



* 'Zoologist,']892, pp. 31, 32. 



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