Birds of Britain 



the centre, and practically indistinguishable from the shingle 

 on which they lie. In colour they are pale clay, uniformly 

 covered with black spots and mottlings. As soon as the 

 birds see that their treasure is discovered they fly round us, 

 calling out continually till we pass on, leaving the hen to 

 resume her duties. The young are covered with thick down 

 when hatched, and are brown, mottled with black on the 

 back ; below white, with a black ring round the chest. They 

 leave the nest as soon as they are hatched, and very shortly 

 begin to feed themselves on the various spiders, flies, and 

 other small insects that abound in such places. Both 

 parents carefully watch and tend them, flying up on the 

 approach of danger, while the young squat closely on the 

 ground, where they become almost invisible. Their wings 

 grow when at the age of five weeks, by which time they are 

 nearly as large as their parents, and are then well able 

 to take care of themselves and wander away to join the 

 flocks of their own kind, or to amalgamate with other pass- 

 ing wanderers, and add their cries to swell the sounds of 

 the shore, which are such a delight to every naturalist. 



The sexes are alike in plumage. General colour above 

 pale sandy brown ; below white. Forehead white, succeeded 

 by a black band ; lores and band across chest black. Legs 

 bright yellow ; beak black, yellow at its base. 



The young resemble the adults, but lack the black band 

 on the forehead ; the chest band is brown concolorous 

 with the upper parts. The legs olive green. 



Generally distributed along the shore and in some in- 

 land sandy places throughout the British Isles. 



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