342 THE PLOVERS 



in a nest of the ringed-plover, and in May 1911 I saw a clutch of four 

 Kentish-plover's eggs in the marismas of Southern Spain. The last- 

 named species normally lays three eggs, and following a general rule 

 when any of the Limicolce depart from the traditional number of four 

 eggs these are less pyriform than the usual type of the family, 

 seldom showing a sign of constriction towards the small end. They 

 differ also from those of the ringed-plover in having markings 

 of a peculiar scrawly type. In this country laying usually com- 

 mences after the first week in May, but it may be earlier in favourable 

 seasons. A nest of eggs was found on April 25, 1902, and another 

 on May 5. 1 



Both species have been described as occasionally arranging the 

 eggs with the small end down, embedded in the sand. 2 Mr. Jourdain 

 stated that eggs of the Kentish -plover found abroad, and laid on 

 sand, were thus placed. 3 



The nests of both species vary according to the nature of the 

 ground. I have seen the eggs of the Kentish-plover on Dungeness 

 beach among pebbles as big or bigger than the eggs, and here the 

 hollow in which they were laid may have been a natural one, or some 

 of the stones may have been displaced by the bird. Other nests, 

 among smaller shingle where much fine wiry grass was growing, were 

 undoubtedly hollows formed by the bird. Some contained a few 

 pieces of dead grass by way of lining. The latter, according to 

 Mr. Dombrain, is the most usual situation. He states also that the 

 first egg is laid on the shingle, and the nest is formed as the clutch 

 is completed, and when incubation is in progress. He also found eggs 

 laid on a heap of seaweed. 4 Mr. Hepburn found a nest " thickly lined 

 with short, broken pieces of rotten twigs and sticks." 5 Baron von 

 Droste Hiilshoff found the Kentish-plover common in the Island of 

 Borkum. The nests were on thickly overgrown dunes, as well as on 

 bare ground. They were often placed in the middle of a bunch of 



1 Field, 1902, vol. xcix. p. 678; also Howard Saunders, Manual of British Birds, p. 544. 



2 Field, 1903, vol. cii. p. 227. 3 Ibid., p. 405. 



* Zoologist, 1880, pp. 138, 139. 6 Ibid., 1903, p. 217. 



