THE RINGED-PLOVERS 341 



Partial as is the ringed-plover to the seashore, in the breeding 

 season it resorts in small numbers to certain inland localities, such as 

 the shores of lakes and the shingle islands in rivers. It also breeds 

 in fair numbers in the Breck district of Suffolk and Norfolk. Here it 

 nests on the more flint-covered parts of the warrens, and also on the 

 sandy fields. It arrives in the Breck district in March, and com- 

 mences to nest almost at once, eggs being frequently found in the 

 first week in April, and I have seen the young hatched out on the 

 23rd of that month. The date of the commencement of egg-laying 

 may vary in different localities. Probably the inland-breeding birds 

 start earlier than those on the shore. According to the observations 

 of Mr. J. Hepburn, egg-laying commences on the North Kent coast in 

 the first week of May. 1 But the same observer found nestlings on the 

 beach at Dungeness on May 10. The eggs from which these were 

 hatched must have been laid about the middle of April 



I do not think that it is by any means the rule that more than 

 one brood is reared in a season. I have found young ringed-plovers 

 hardly able to fly, and with the down still on their heads and backs, 

 on the Norfolk coast in August and September, but such late broods 

 are probably due to the first nests having been destroyed. Stevenson 

 thought that some of the ringed-plovers which arrive from the south 

 with knots and other Waders at Breydon in mid-May, stay and breed 

 with us, and account for the late broods. 2 



The Kentish-plover generally arrives on the Kent coast about the 

 middle of April, although in mild seasons it occasionally appears at 

 the end of March. The few weeks prior to the nesting season are 

 spent in flocks on the sandy shore, with occasional visits to the 

 marshes. 3 In May they resort to the shingle beach for nesting 

 purposes, laying their eggs in a slight depression, either natural or 

 formed by themselves. Like all Waders, both species seldom depart 

 from their normal number of eggs in a clutch. I have found five eggs 



1 Zoologist, 1904, p. 169. * Birds of Norfolk, vol. ii. p. 91. 



3 Ticehurst, Birds of Kent, p. 425. 



