402 CHARADRIIDE. 



sea at its ebb retires to a distance, leaving extensive surfaces 

 of sand or shingle. These birds also frequent the sides of 

 large rivers, and are not unfrcquently found about the margin 

 of inland lakes and large ponds. As a species it is numer- 

 ous, and its habits are lively and interesting. It is recorded 

 that !Mr. Scales found them breeding on the warrens at 

 Beechamwcll and Elston, near Thetford in Norfolk ; and the 

 late Mr. Hoy sent me word, also, that many breed on the 

 sandy warrens of Norfolk and Suffolk, at a considerable dis- 

 tance from the sea. They pair in May; but making no 

 nest, deposit their four eggs in any accidental depression on 

 a bank of sand, broken shells or shingles above higli-water 

 mark. The eggs are one inch five lines long, by one inch 

 and half a line in breadth, of a pale buff or cream-colour, 

 spotted and streaked with ash blue and black. The parent 

 birds are greatly attached to their young, and practise various 

 devices to draw off any intruder from their charge, while from 

 the great similarity in colour to the surrounding materials, 

 either the eggs or the young are very difficult to find. They 

 feed on worms, insects, and, when at the edge of the sea, 

 on the various species of the thinner-skinned Crustacea, as 

 shrimps, sandhoppers, &c. with which almost every little salt 

 water pool abounds. The note of this bird is a shrill whistle. 

 The Ringed Plover is even more numerous on our shores 

 in winter than it is in summer, probably from the number 

 that come to this country from high northern latitudes, which 

 they visit during the breeding-season. Thus M. Nilsson 

 says they are only seen in Sweden, and on the shores of the 

 Baltic from March to October. Mr. Hewitson saw them in 

 Norway in summer. Linnseus found them in several parts of 

 Lapland during his tour, and as far north and west as the 

 Lapland Alps. They are included among the Birds of 

 Iceland ; Mr. Scoresby, in his Journal, mentions having seen 

 them on the east coast of Greenland, and our Arctic voya- 



