RINGED PLOVER. 85 



plover, or 'stonehatch' as it is locally termed, breeds 

 from March, to June on Thetford warren. Whether 

 the same bird lays more than once in the season I can- 

 not positively say, but I have little doubt that such is 

 the case. It certainly is so if the first eggs are destroyed 

 or taken away. The 7th of February is the earliest date 

 on which the species was ever observed by my brother 

 or myself in that neighbourhood, and the 1st September 

 the latest. We have known the first egg to be laid 

 on the 23rd of March, and have found several nests with 

 eggs (one with a single fresh egg) on the 8th of June ; 

 this was in 1851. When the birds first arrive in the 

 district they are generally seen on the fallows, or on 

 land from which turnips have recently been fed off. 

 After a few days they betake themselves to the warrens, 

 and remain there for the summer, frequenting the most 

 barren spots. The nests are somewhat deep holes, 

 apparently formed by the birds themselves, and having 

 at the bottom a considerable number of small stones, 

 almost enough to fill half the hole, and neatly arranged. 

 On this pavement, whence they derive their ordinary 

 appellation, the four eggs are laid, with their pointed 

 ends invariably meeting in the centre of the nest.* The 

 cock bird has a regular song, in which he indulges 

 during flight at this season." 



On this warren, where Mr. Newton tells me he has 

 seen some two dozen nests in one day not necessarily 

 all occupied, or even recent, for owing to the peculiarly 

 permanent materials forming their " domestic hearths," 

 these last many months, perhaps even a couple of 

 years their numbers appear to have decreased but little 

 of late years, its character being unchanged; but at 



* The nests being in reality deep cups in which the eggs are 

 placed with their small ends downwards, Sir Thomas Browne 

 was not so far wrong in stating, on the authority of the " Eringo 

 diggers," " that they were set upright like eggs in salt." 



