86 OUR 11 ARE R BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



PLOVER, KENTISH. 



ALTHOUGH the particular breeding haunt of this 

 rare and interesting little Plover is well known to 

 most practical ornithologists in this country, I will 

 nofc help to hasten its destruction by giving any 

 particulars calculated to recruit its already large 

 enough army of persecutors. I had the good 

 fortune last May to find three pairs, and watch 

 them a whole day upon the burning shingle 

 thrown up by long-past Channel storms. They 

 are easily distinguished from the Einged Plover 

 by their smaller size and lighter colours, and 

 are moreover shyer and less demonstrative when 

 their eggs are approached. 



Whilst tramping along the beach, my guide 

 and I frequently peeped over a high ridge of sand 

 dividing the sea from the great shingle flats where 

 the birds breed, to see if we could mark a female 

 leaving her eggs. After a long and tiring journey 

 we had the good luck to see a bird rise some fifty 

 yards from us, and, flying a little way off, alight 

 and behave in a sufficiently suspicious manner to 

 warrant us in believing she had eggs. She had 

 no doubt run some distance before rising, so we 

 did not go in search of her precious charge, but 

 lay down to watch. My companion, who had 

 studied the bird and its habits all his life, told 

 me that hot weather such as we were then having 

 was the very worst during which to watch a 

 Kentish Plover on to its nest, and showery weather 

 the best. He also added that the number of 

 young birds that actually get away varies con- 

 siderably nearly every season. 



The individual we had under observation stood 

 some hundred yards off for a few seconds, uttering 



