RINGED PLOVER. 201 
1874, Mr. J. E. Smith described the bird as a regular 
spring visitor to Hale Moss,! a tract of boggy land 
close to Altrincham, which has since been reclaimed. 
Brockholes, writing in the same year, said that Dotterel 
had been shot a few years previously on the shore at 
Denhall, but that the bird was scarce in Wirral.? 
Dr. Dobie mentions one that was shot near Frodsham 
on May 2nd, 1887.° 
RINGED PLOVER. 
AGIALITIS HIATICOLA (Linnzus). 
Tullet, Sand Lark. 
The Ringed Plover may be met with on the Wirral 
coast at all seasons of the year, although very few, if 
any, now breed in Cheshire. So long ago as 1865, 
Mr. H. E. Smith said that this species, owing to 
molestation, had ceased to nest in its old haunts on 
the Cheshire shore;* but Mr. W. E. Sharp found it 
breeding on Middle Hilbre in 1876.6 There is a large 
influx of migratory birds from the south in spring. 
On May 14th, 1894, we came across thousands of 
Ringed Plovers scattered over the saltings between 
Burton and Shotwick. The birds, which were asso- 
ciated with Dunlins, were probably referable to the 
small dark form, and were moving northwards to their 
breeding-grounds. Mr. L. Jones has two examples in 
his possession which he shot at Hilbre, one being of 
this form, and the other of the larger resident race. 
The Ringed Plover is met with along the Mersey up 
1 Manchester City News, May 16, 1874. 
? Brockholes, op. cit. p. 10. 3 Dobie, op. cit. p. 333. 
* Smith, op. cit. p. 249. ° Dobie, op. cit. p. 333. 
