KENTISH PLOVER. 3 



flute-like note, fiidt ; and I sometimes caught sight of the female running, 

 crouched down, from her nest ; and only when she had traversed some distance, 

 and got behind some cover, would she rise into the air and fly circling round, 

 uttering a sharp but not loud fit^ fit. Now and again the male would take his 

 turn in circling round ; and when either settled down it always alighted where 

 some unevenness in the ground hid it from view, but would immediately run out 

 to look at the intruder, uttering now and again its note, fiuit. Should any one 

 approach too close to the nest, the bird will crawl about at a few paces distance 

 on the ground, uttering a mournful note, trdrr, trdrr, puffing out its feathers, 

 turning its head and dragging one wing, and if pursued will run quickly away, 

 but will recommence its former manoeuvres should one again remain standing still. 

 During the breeding-season the old birds seldom range far away from the nest, 

 and one may observe the male performing curious aerial motions, which probably 

 represent a sort of love-dance, like the drumming of the Snipe. It flies in a 

 peculiar. Bat-like, wavering manner, the wings being very fully extended, the 

 body thrown now on the one and now on the other side ; and it almost describes 

 a circle in its flight, uttering as it flies a peculiar note, which resembles the 

 syllables trit, tritritritrirrrr. The young leave the nest during the first few days 

 after they are hatched, but do not stray far until they are about half-grown, when 

 they betake themselves to the shore — and when able to fly, collect in flocks and 

 wander aboiit.' " 



Describing the eggs of this species, Mr. Howard Saunders Avrites * : — "They 

 seldom exceed three in number — though I have found four in Spain and also in 

 the Channel Islands — and are rough in texture, and of a yellowish stone-colour, 

 spotted and characteristically scrawled with black." 



Mr. H. E. Dresser, describing eggs of the Kentish Plover in his collection, 

 obtained from Kent, Sussex, and the Holstein coast, says that they " have the 

 ground-colour lighter or darker clay-ochreous, and are marked with greyish black 

 underlying shell-markings and clearly defined black surface-spots and scratches. 

 They differ from the eggs of ^. hiaticula in having most of the markings irre- 

 gular and scratchy, almost as if drawn with a pen, whereas in ^. hiaticula they 

 are generally clearly defined roundish spots and blotches." He further states that 

 the measurements of these eggs vary from 1'32 by "92 inch to 1-2 by -82 inch.f 



Mr. H. Seebohm says the eggs "vary in length from 1'35 to 1'15 inch, and 

 in breadth feom -95 to 'SS inch." J 



* ' Manual of British Birds,' p. 528. 



t ' History of the Birds of Europe,' vol. vii. p. 488. 



t ' History of British Birds,' vol. iii. p. 27. 



t2 



