KING PLOVKir 153 



flute, which it utters while running along the sand, with ex- 

 panded tail, and hanging wings, endeavouring tq decoy you 

 from its nest. The present species is never seen to breed here; 

 and though I have opened great numbers of them as late as the 

 twentieth of May, the eggs, which the females contained, were 

 never larger than small bird-shot; while, at the same time, the 

 light-coloured kind had every where begun to lay in the little 

 cavities which they had dug on the sand, on the beach. These 

 facts being considered, it seems difficult to reconcile such dif- 

 ference of habit in one and the same bird. The Ring Plover is 

 common in England, and agrees exactly with the one before 

 us; but the light-coloured species, as far as I can learn, is not 

 found in Britain; specimens of it have indeed been taken to 

 that country, where the most judicious of their ornithologists 

 have concluded it to be still the Ring Plover, but to have chang- 

 ed from the effect of climate. Mr. Pennant, in speaking of the 

 true Ring Plover, makes the following remarks: " Almost all 

 which I have seen from the northern parts of North America 

 have had the black marks extremely faint, and almost lost. 

 The climate had almost destroyed the specific marks; yet in the 

 bill and habit preserved sufficient to make the kind very easily 

 ascertained." These traits agree exactly with the light-colour- 

 ed species described in our fifth volume. But this excellent na- 

 turalist was perhaps not aware that we have the true Ring Plo- 

 ver here in spring and autumn, agreeing in every respect with 

 that of Britain, and at least in equal numbers; why, therefore, 

 has not the climate equally affected the present and the former 

 sort, if both are the same species? These inconsistencies can- 

 not be reconciled but by supposing each to be a distinct spe- 

 cies, which, though approaching extremely near to each other, 

 in external appearance, have each their peculiar notes, colour, 

 and places of breeding. 



The Ring Plover is seven inches long, and fourteen inches 

 in extent; bill short, orange coloured, tipt with black, front and 

 chin white, encircling the neck; upper part of the breast black; 

 rest of the lower parts pure white; fore part of the crown black; 



VOL. in. x 



