72 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 
brownish-buff in ground colour, blotched, spotted, 
and streaked with blackish-brown and gray. Two 
distinct types are noticeable: one in which the 
markings are streaky, and often form a zone; 
the other in which they are large, irregular, and 
distributed over most of the surface. As soon 
as the nest is approached the ever-watchful birds 
rise screaming into the air, and should many pairs 
be breeding in company, the din soon becomes 
general and deafening. It is under these circum- 
stances alone that the Oyster-catcher permits man 
to approach it closely; at all other times it is 
certainly one of the shyest and wariest of birds 
on the coast. 
RINGED PLOVER. 
With the present species—or resident large race, 
the £gialitis hiaticula major of Tristram, as we 
should more correctly describe it—we reach the 
true Plovers. The ‘Ringed Plover is one jae 
the most widely distributed of our coast _ birds, 
frequenting all the flat sandy shores of the British 
Islands, from the Shetlands, in the north, to the 
Channel Islands, in the south. And not only does 
it haunt the coast, but it is found on the banks 
of rivers and lochs in many inland districts. In 
many places this species is known as the “ Ring 
Dotterel”; in others its local name is the “ Sand 
Lark.” The favourite haunts of the Ringed 
Plover are the sandy portions of the beach; but 
in autumn and winter this bird frequently visits 
