PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 319 



are white, but the innermost primaries are white towards the base of the outer web ; 

 the secondaries are dusky brown with white tips, the innermost being also margined 

 with white. The under parts are white, relieved by a black patch on each side of 

 the fore-breast, answering to the black gorget of the ringed-plover. The beak and 

 legs are black. The iris is dark brown. The female differs from the male in having 

 no black on the forehead, and little or no rufous on the crown, while a patch of 

 black on the fore-breast is replaced by a smaller patch of dark brown. In winter 

 the black and red patches on the head, and the black patches on the fore-breast 

 of the male, are wanting. The juvenile plumage resembles that of the female, but 

 the feathers of the upper surface have pale buff fringes. The young in down differs 

 conspicuously from that of the ringed-plover, having the upper parts densely 

 mottled with grey on a buffish white ground. The forehead is white, and the 

 cincture round the occiput is only imperfectly developed ; the median stripe down 

 the crown is conspicuous by its absence, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. As a breeding species the Kentish-plover is practically con- 

 fined to the two counties of Kent and Sussex in the British Isles, being found there 

 on the great shingle beach of Dungeness, and sparingly westward towards Rye and 

 Winchelsea, while a few pairs breed at one other Kentish locality. Of late there has 

 been a decided increase in their numbers, chiefly owing to the cessation of shooting 

 in the breeding season. Outside the British Isles, where it is only a summer resident, 

 it breeds sparingly in S. Sweden and on the south shore of the Baltic, commonly in 

 Denmark, the Frisian Isles, the Low Countries, France, and the Iberian Peninsula, 

 the Canaries, Madeira, Azores, Cape Verdes, and on the shores and islands of the 

 Mediterranean, as well as in the Black and Caspian Seas. It also breeds in small 

 numbers by the larger rivers of Central Europe, e.g. in Hungary. In Asia its range 

 appears to extend from Turkestan to E. Siberia and Corea, while local races are 

 found in China and S.E. Asia, as well as in America. Its winter quarters extend 

 to the coasts of tropical Africa, and it has once been recorded from Damara 

 Land, as well as Southern Asia. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor and a bird of passage. It appears on the 

 Kentish coast usually about mid-April, but sometimes even before the end of 

 March. Flocking takes place towards the end of July, and most of the birds have 

 left by the end of September, October 10 being the latest recorded date for the 

 county (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 425). On the east of England the species 

 occurs in small numbers on migration, chiefly in autumn, presumably on passage 

 to and from Denmark or Sweden (cf. preceding paragraph) : Teesmouth is the 



