LVL KINGED PLOVER 



(jEgialitis piaticula.} 



THIS bird is very common here and always to be seen near the 

 shore. It makes no nest, but lays its four eggs in a slight 

 depression of the ground, with the four small ends together, 

 as is the custom of Plovers. They are so very like the colour 

 of the gravelly shore on which they are laid, not far above high 

 water-mark, that they are very difficult to find, so it is as 

 well to take their bearings carefully, or to put some mark 

 whereby you may find them again. 



We visited them daily till the first egg was hatched, 

 so as to get both eggs and young in the picture. They go 

 off into the wide world as soon as they are out of the shell, 

 the eggs all hatching within about four and twenty hours 

 of each other, having nothing in the way of a nest to return to. 

 Their habits, in other respects, are very like those of the 

 Sandpiper, keeping the same stillness in the time of danger 

 when warned to do so by the cries of the parents, who both 

 guard the young and expose themselves to danger by their 

 stratagem to draw off the enemy. 



THE OYSTER CATCHER (Hcematopus ostralegus) is very conspicuous 

 here, with its Magpie plumage, scarlet beak and legs. It 

 frequents the shore in great numbers, seldom silent, and making 

 a shrill outcry on the approach of danger, thereby giving warning 

 to the other shore birds. It builds its nest on the little rocky 

 islands near the sea, and lays four greenish -brown spotted eggs, 

 placed with the small ends together like those of the Einged 

 Plover. The newly-hatched young are very invisible in their 



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