PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 315 



fined to the regions mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The return migration 

 is over by early September. A gregarious migrant. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is little more than a depression in the moss, 

 sometimes lined with the red leaves of the cranberry or a few bents. (PL Li.) The 

 eggs are typically 3 in number, though occasionally 2 have been found highly incu- 

 bated, and a nest with 4 eggs has been recorded (Ibis, 1904, p. 229). They bear a 

 decided likeness to some eggs of the Arctic-tern, and are clay-yellow or yellowish 

 olive in ground-colour, boldly spotted and blotched with black markings, and occa- 

 sionally showing a few ashy grey shellmarks. (PI. L.) They are more ovoid than 

 pyriform in shape, and the average size of 16 eggs is l*62x 1'14 in. [41'2x28'8 mm.]. 

 Incubation is partially (if not entirely) performed by the male bird, as Pearson, 

 H. H. Slater, and others have shot males from the nest (Ibis, 1896, p. 211 ; British 

 Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 6). There is very little direct evidence 

 as to its duration, but Heysham, who had good opportunities of watching it 

 on the hills of Lakeland, says that it rarely lasts much longer than 18 to 20 days. 

 The usual breeding time in the British Isles is from about June 5 to about the end 

 of the third week in the month. Clutches taken in July are probably second layings, 

 but there is no evidence that a second brood is reared in the season. [F. c. B. J.] 



5. Food. Mainly insects of various kinds, especially beetles, and their 

 larvae. Also land-shells and a little vegetable matter. The young feed chiefly 

 on insects and their larvae, and are assisted in their search for food probably by 

 both parents, but there is no direct evidence, [w. F.] 



RINGED-PLOVER \Mgialitis hiaticula (Linnaeus). Sand-lark, stone- 

 hatch, stone-runner, dotterel, oxbird, tullet ; catpoll, dunwilly (Devon) ; 

 sand-tripper, five-toed plover (Dumfries) ; sandy-loo, sandy-laverock (Shet- 

 lands). French, pluvier d collier ; German, Sand-Regenpfeifer ; Italian, 

 corriere grosso], 



i. Description. The ringed-plover is readily distinguished from its con- 

 geners by its yellow legs and toes, and the fact that the middle region of the shafts 

 of the exposed portion of the primaries is white. The sexes are alike, and there is 

 no distinct seasonal change of coloration. (PL 117.) Length 7'75 in. [196-85 mm.]. 

 The adult has a broad band of black and white across the forehead ; and a black 

 bar, extending from the lores backwards below the eye, while the crown and nape 

 are of a pale grey-brown. Behind the eye is a white patch, and the under surface of 



VOL. III. 28 



