THE RINGED PLOVER. 211 



and is exceedingly pretty to watch as it trips daintily along the 

 edge of the water following each receding wave for morsels of 

 food, and skipping back for the breakers as if afraid to wet its 

 feet. 



The immature bird does not in our opinion breed in the first 

 year, that is to say, a bird hatched in 1906, will not breed till 

 1908. Our reason for this unorthodox view is that all the 

 summer there will be little flocks of birds not in the full bright 

 plumage of the breeding season which roam the Harbour at 

 large, and never indulge in the pretty little antics of courting, 

 and never show any signs of more serious matrimonial 

 responsibilities. These are, we believe, birds of the year, which 

 will not breed till the following spring. 



(ix.) ENEMIES. 



The first and most ruthless enemy of the Ringed Plover is 

 man. In Poole Harbour the eggs are destroyed unmercifully, 

 numberless clutches being destroyed for no apparent reason 

 other than that man seems unable to resist the destruction of 

 every natural object in his reach, be it birds, eggs, flowers, or 

 ferns. The bird itself often falls a prey to that pest and curse 

 of our bird-life, the shore shooter, who, armed with a rusty gun 

 (which, the more is the pity, fails to explode as one hopes it will 

 and blow his head off), lies in wait in a position covering a 

 point where the Ringed Plover assembles at high tide, and, on 

 the settling in of a flock, fires into their midst, killing some and 

 wounding others. So long as there are any wounded birds left 

 to call, the flock wheels back to try to induce their wounded 

 comrades to go with them, thus presenting a closely-packed 

 mass of birds as a target to the weapon of the murderer lying in 

 wait. Again and again he fires, till at last the flock give up the 

 attempt and, sadly reduced in numbers, try to find some safer 

 quarters. It is pathetic to consider the numbers of poor little 

 birds which fall as victims to their well-meant efforts to save 

 their comrades from death. 



