2 CHAKADEIID.E. 



giving at each stroke of the wings a sharp whistle, then drop suddenly, as if shot, 

 crouch very close, expand its wings and tail, and drag itself along, then suddenly 

 take wing again, and go through the same motions till the intruder is at a safe 

 distance. The call-note is a soft whistle quickly repeated four or five times. 

 The young, which run as soon as they are hatched, keep close to the parent birds 

 till well able to shift for themselves. The food of this species consists of insects 

 and small worms, which it picks up at the water's edge and on the beach, when 

 its form and manner much resemble the Sanderling, the head being drawn in, the 

 body nearly horizontal, and the thighs concealed among the feathers of the under 

 plumage. There is a species of spider which has hitherto baffled my attempts at 

 capture on account of the rapidity with which it travels among the stones, and 

 which is found in great abundance on the beach, and as the bird is often seen 

 running very nimbly over the stones and occasionally darting its head down it 

 may fairly be presumed that this insect constitutes a good deal of its food. If the 

 eggs are approached, but not too nearly, the bird may be seen to run among the 

 grasses, and every now and then raise itself on its legs and stretch its neck to see 

 and not be seen. It possesses great powers of ventriloquism. I have stood still 

 and tried for some minutes to discover one which was in an entirely different 

 place to what I had supposed from its note. Their favourite place for exercising 

 this is on a moderate-sized stone, where they will stand and whistle for many 

 minutes at a time." 



Mr. H. E. Dresser writes * : — " The best notes on the nidification of this 

 bird that are known to me are those by Baron von Droste Hiilshoff, Avho found it 

 breeding numerously on the island of Borkum, and from whose Avork (Vogelw. 

 Bork. pp. 154-157) l' extract the following information. The Kentish Plover is 

 very common on Borkum during the breeding-season, and is scattered throughout 

 the dunes. The nest is placed both in the thickly overgrown dunes and in the 

 large bare sandy tracts, as well as in the inner portions of the dunes, where rushes, 

 grass, brambles, and Ononis reptans grow thickly ; and he never met with it on 

 the outer sands, as stated by Naumann, nor did he find the nest in an open 

 situation, but often in the middle of a bunch of wild oats or amidst willow-shoots, 

 though never so carefully hidden as that of the Kedshank. The nest itself he 

 describes as being a slight depression in the ground, lined with a few grass bents 

 or fine rootlets. ' Often,' he writes, ' several pairs breed within a very small area ; 

 I have found nests not ten paces distant from each other. The various pairs lived 

 in amity together, and joined in uttering their cries when I approached. When 

 any one approaches a nest, the male usually warns his mate by uttering a low 



* ' llistoi-)- of the Birds of Europe,' vol. vii. pp. 487, 488. 



