RINGED DOTTEREL 



RINGED PLOVER SAND LARK SAND LAVEROCK. 



PLATE CLII. 



jgialitis hiaticula, DRESSER. 



Charadrius hiaticula, NAUMANN. 



THE nest of this common species is but a slight 

 natural hollow amongst small gravel, or on sand, fre- 

 quently under the shelter of some tall grass ; it is generally 

 placed on a bank by the beach, just above high-water 

 mark, but occasionally in sandy places farther inland, as 

 much, Sir William Jardine says, as ten, or from that to 

 fifteen or twenty miles ; in some instances on the banks 

 that line the coast, or even over them in an adjoining field. 

 The Ringed Plover is common on warrens in Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, and also in the Fens of Bottisham and Swaffham, in 

 Cambridgeshire. 



The eggs are four in number, pear-shaped, and of a 

 greenish grey, pale buff, or cream colour, spotted and 

 streaked with bluish grey and black, or blackish brown. 

 The male and female both sit on them and appear much 

 attached to each other, as well as very careful of their 

 eggs and young. 



The birds lay generally by the middle of April, pro- 

 ducing two broods in the season, recently hatched young 

 being often found in the first week in August. 



