206 THE RINGED PLOVER. 



of the male parent will be transmitted to the young in a definite 

 proportion. Accordingly when we find as we have found for 

 six successive years a nest of Ring Plover's eggs laid within a 

 few yards (at most 100 yards) of the spot where we found a 

 clutch of eggs in the preceding year, and that these eggs bear 

 the same individuality in form and colouration that the eggs 

 we found last year bore, we are correct in assuming that the eggs 

 were laid by the same parent bird. Further, when this has 

 happened with regard to three pairs of birds observed for five 

 or six years, we can safely assume that they are the same pairs 

 segregated from the winter flocks, and back at their old 

 breeding haunts. Hence, we are firmly of opinion that the 

 Ringed Plover does as a rule pair for life, and that if a mishap 

 has befallen one of the pair, a new partner is brought to share 

 the old home with the surviving partner. 



The pairing for life, however, does not seem to affect the 

 progress of the courting, which is started afresh every spring. 

 The male bird runs on the sand before the female bird, bows 

 and scrapes before her, twitters to her little endearing notes, 

 caresses her, and raises his head to the full extent of his neck 

 and then pokes it forward, every once now and again raising 

 his wings over his back. This exhibition generally ends 

 in a mad frolic at full tilt through the air or along the beach, the 



male following the female and whistling a warbling note 



_'_'-- _"__ '!__ . . 7 



tooeeoo, ooeeoo, ooeeoo, ooeeoo, again and again. During the 



sitting the male bird is in constant attendance on the female, 

 rarely leaving her, but we do not think that the male bird takes 

 any actual share in the incubation, since when the female 

 is off the nest feeding the eggs are left unguarded. As 

 incubation advances the eggs get little patches of mud on the 

 upper part, which gradually grow, as the dirt brought by the 

 little bird on her feathers after her daily excursion for feeding 

 purposes and exercise has been deposited on the top. In fact a 

 look at the eggs will generally enable you to judge how far 

 incubation has progressed. The eggs when laid on places like 

 the shingle beaches at Rye or the Sandbanks at Studland do not 



