THE COMMON RINGED-PLOVER. ^ 



broods of young in the season very often, though whether this is a general rule 

 I am doubtful. Most likely it depends a good deal on the earliness of the season. 

 The eggs are four in number, their ground colour varies from cream to clay 

 colour, spotted and splashed with slate- grey and black; they are of the typical 

 Limicoline shape, hardly if inches long, and about an inch in greatest diameter. 

 The old birds are very solicitous when their nest is approached, and use every 

 device they can think of to draw intruders away from it ; a better protection, 

 however, lies in the colours of the eggs and young, which exactly match the 

 ground they lie upon ; and the young lie as still as the eggs. 



The Ringed- Plover is essentially a shore bird, except partially during the 

 breeding season. But even the individuals which breed at some distance from 

 the sea, return thither as soon as the young can travel. This bird frequents 

 sandy and muddy, rather than rocky shores, mingling with other species at feeding 

 time, i.e., low water. Its food consists of small Crustacea, insects, and worms. It 

 is a very pretty and engaging little creature, not naturally afraid of man, and 

 harmed by none but the kind of prowling gunner (of which there are far too 

 many in England) who want to kill, and kill as much as possible, caring little 

 what it is they take the life of to no purpose. The Ringed-Plover very 

 rarely mixes with other birds on the wing, as Dunlins, Curlews, Sandpipers, 

 Sanderlings, and such-like do, but flies alone, or with its own species. Like most 

 of the shore birds, when in flocks, Ringed-Plovers perform the most rapid and 

 intricate evolutions on the wing ; on the ground, too, they are remarkably active, 

 running with such rapidity that their legs have the same blurred outline as the 

 spokes of a wheel in quick motion. The ordinary note of the Ringed-Plover is a 

 pretty dissyllabic whistle, but the male in the breeding season uses another pleasing 

 uote. I have a great liking for this gentle little creature ; when lying by the 

 sea-shore watching the migrant waders, I have many a time had Ringed- 

 Plovers, in numbers, running about within a few yards of me, for hours together, 

 quite indifferent to my presence. 



VOL. V. 



