90 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



be explained by the fact that, with us the ringed- 

 plover is both resident and migratory. In autumn the 

 birds of the warrens retire to the coast, and swell the 

 numbers of those which have passed their summer by 

 the sea. On Breydon, also, as Mr. F. Frere informs me, 

 both young and old make their appearance by the end 

 of August* or beginning of September (some young birds 

 returning sooner than others), at which time their flocks 

 consist undoubtedly of migrants from more northern 

 localitiesf as well as partial migrants from our own in- 

 land districts. A large proportion of these again pass on 

 to the southward, though some still remain, throughout 

 the autumn and winter, at times consorting with dunlins J 



* Mr. Cordeaux, in his " Notes from North Lincolnshire " for 

 1867 ("Zoologist," s. s., p. 945), says "Hundreds of these little 

 fellows made their appearance in the first week of August. These 

 flocks contained an unusual number of dunlins." A small family 

 of six, as an advanced guard, had been also observed on the 27th 

 of July. 



'f This species is included by Mr. Alfred Newton in his list of 

 the "Birds of Spitsbergen" ("Ibis," 1865, p. 504), and on the 

 authority of Dr. Malmgren, he states " that Professors Torell and 

 Nordenskjold, found on one of the Seven Islands, in lat. 80 45' N., 

 a brood of ringed plovers, which had probably been bred on one 

 of these, the most northern islets of the known world." Their 

 plaintive whistle has been also distinguished, amongst others, in 

 those large nocturnal flights before alluded to under the head of 

 golden plover; and in one instance (see ante p. 72, note) the 

 ringed plover is specially named as one of the species picked 

 up and identified. 



I This habit, as shown by Thompson (" Birds of Ireland," vol. ii., 

 p. 101) " is fatal to them ; for when by themselves the flocks are so 

 small as to be considered unworthy of the fowler's notice ; but when 

 in company with the other, which usually go in large bodies, and 

 consequently are 'worth a charge of powder and shot,' both are 

 slain together." Mr. J. H. Gurney, however, who has recently had 

 many opportunities of observing this species on the coast of South 

 Wales and Somersetshire, where, in October and November, they 

 appear in large numbers sometimes over one hundred in a flock 



