92 BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



Lincoln marshes, but now it can be considered only 

 a rare and occasional visitor. 



Was unusually numerous in the spring of 1866, 

 when several large " trips " visited us; since that 

 period I have generally met with a few each year*. 

 On their return southward in the autumn we never 

 meet with them in flocks, but either singly or in 

 pairs. The female is rather larger and more bril- 

 liantly coloured than the male. 



147. CHARADRIUS HIATICULA, Linnaeus. Ringed 

 Plover. 



Provincial. Black-head, Stonerunner. 



A resident throughout the year; nests at Spurn 

 in company with the lesser Terns also on the Lin- 

 colnshire coast, but not nearly in such numbers as 

 was formerly the case. Large flocks of this pretty 

 and lively species visit the Humber marshes with 

 very great regularity each year during the first week 

 in August, arriving almost to a day from the 3rd to 

 the 5th of that month, and very rarely, and then only 

 in small "trips/' before this period f. They now 

 resort daily to the pastures, and more commonly to 

 the fallow land, where, in company with Dunlins, they 

 will sit with their breasts turned to the wind for 



* The largest " trip " of Dotterel I have ever seen in these 

 marshes numbered twenty birds. 



t The earliest I have observed them in large flocks was on 

 the 31st of July, 1869. 



