THE RINGED-PLOVERS 343 



wild oats or amidst willow shoots, and lined with a few bents or fine 

 roots. Some of the nests were not more than ten paces apart. The 

 pairs live in amity, and join in crying when disturbed. 1 In the 

 marismas of Southern Spain, where the Kentish-plover is common, 

 the eggs are laid in a very slight hollow on the mud, which may be 

 soft on the edge of the flooded parts, or hard and sunbaked. 



The nest of the ringed-plover is a better defined hollow, and 

 varies considerably in the nature and quantity of the lining. Most 

 frequently this consists of small stones and broken shells. But almost 

 any convenient material may be utilised, pieces of driftwood, a little 

 dry grass or other vegetable matter, and occasionally rabbit droppings. a 

 Colonel H. W. Feilden found four nests at Wells in Norfolk, each 

 substantially made of the green leaves and stems of Atriplex litoralis. 

 These nests were on mud in the salt-marsh ; others, not a quarter of a 

 mile away, on the sand and shingle, were lined with stones and shells 

 in the more usual way. 3 A very interesting nest was described by 

 Dr. Kelso in the Zoologist. It was found on May 26, 1900, in a field, 

 and was like a miniature lapwing's nest, very substantially built with 

 dry bents. It contained three eggs, which were taken, as the field was 

 about to be harrowed. On June 14th an exactly similar nest was 

 found a short distance from the site of the first, on a piece of rough 

 grass, evidently the work of the same pair of birds. A reproduction 

 of a photograph of this nest accompanied the description, and shows 

 the nest to have been a remarkable structure for the species. 4 Out 

 of nineteen nests found by Mr. J. Hepburn in Kent, one was at the 

 base of a river wall "separated by about one hundred yards of salt- 

 marsh from the beach, the nest-hollow being quite thickly lined with 

 the leaves of the sea-heath growing on the saltings." Another was 

 "by the side of a road made up of cinders and household refuse, 

 running across one of the saltings." This nest " was paved entirely 

 with small pieces of earthenware, evidently picked off the track." The 



1 Votjelw. Bork,, pp. 154, 157. * Zoologist, 1891, p. 44. 



3 Ibid., 1889, p. 263. * Ibid., 1902, p. 28. 



