192 Order XIII 



consists of the worms, insects, crustaceans, and so forth 

 which it can find in the damp sand or ooze. This 

 species breeds in the Arctic regions from eastern America, 

 Iceland and Greenland to Lake Baikal, but is more 

 common southwards ; a smaller form which, however, 

 is not the "Little Ringed Plover" ranges to the 

 Atlantic Islands, north Africa, and Turkestan. A hole 

 is scraped in the ground to contain the four pointed 

 buff black-spotted eggs, which, as is the custom in the 

 family, are placed with the pointed ends inwards ; on 

 the East Anglian warrens this hole is lined with small 

 stones and gives the bird the name of Stone- 

 hatch. 



The Kentish Plover (M. alexandrina) is similarly 

 coloured, but has a broken instead of an entirely black 

 chest-band and much less black on the head ; an 

 illustration or a skin should here be examined. It is 

 a migrant to Britain, arriving in April and departing 

 in mid-autumn, while it only breeds on the shingly 

 shores of Kent, Sussex, and in the Channel Islands. 

 This Plover ranges from the Baltic southward in 

 Europe, and reaches the Atlantic Islands, north Africa, 

 and central Asia as well as China and Japan, but 

 requires lakes or sea-coasts for its breeding quarters. 

 The unlined hole which contains the eggs is usually 

 in fine or shelly sand, the eggs themselves being 

 rougher than those of the Ringed Plover, duller in 

 ground-colour, and scrawled rather than spotted with 

 black. The Kentish Plover is a smaller and less ob- 

 trusive bird than its congener, with a feebler cry ; 

 otherwise the habits are identical. 



The Golden Plover (Charadrius apricarius) breeds 

 on the moors, generally at a considerable altitude, 



