PLOVERS. 



477 



a light tint. Moreover, while the central pair of tail-feathers have but very small 

 white tips, in the other feathers of that part the size of this white tip gradually 

 increases to the outermost one. 



The ringed plovers include at least twelve species, which are distributed 

 over the greater part of the world except South America, although but poorly 

 represented in India and the adjacent countries during the breeding-season. The 

 majority frequent the banks of rivers and lakes, rather than the coast, laying their 

 eggs in a mere hollow of the ground. The prettily coloured common ringed plover 

 (jE. Jutifirnlii), of which there is a larger and a smaller race, the former more 

 common in the British Islands and adjacent parts of Europe, belongs to a group 

 of the genus in which the central half of the outer webs of the innermost primaries 

 is white ; while it is specially characterised by the whole of the under-parts being 

 white, with the exception of the lores and a single broad band across the breast 

 both of which are black in adult males ; and also by the web between the third 

 and fourth toes extending only to their first joints. In length it varies from 8 to 7 

 inches. The larger race is the only one definitely known to breed in Britain, while 

 the smaller one breeds in Greenland, Iceland, Novaia Zemlia, etc., as well as in 

 Western Siberia, Turkestan, and North Africa; in summer it visits the greater 

 part of Europe northward of the Alps, and in winter it spreads over the basin 

 of the Mediterranean and Africa. In North America it is represented by the half- 

 webbed ringed plover (dZ. semipalmata), differing by the web between the third 

 and fourth toes extending to their second joints, and likewise by the presence of a 

 shorter web between the second and third toes. The little ringed plover (^E. minor) 

 which is an occasional visitor to Britain, and breeds over the greater part of Europe 

 and Asia north of the Himalaya, wintering in India and Africa, may be taken as 

 an example of the second group of smaller species characterised by the dark outer 

 webs of the inner primaries. It is specially distinguished by the scapulars being 

 coloured like the back, and by the outer tail-feathers being less than a quarter of 

 an inch shorter than the central pair, the latter feature distinguishing it from 

 Hodgson's ringed plover (JE. placida) of India. In length this species is 6f 

 inches, but a resident Indian variety is smaller. Another well-known representative 

 of the first group is the American kill-deer plover (^E. vocifera), which measures 

 from 9 to 10 inches in length, and is characterised by the chestnut-buff colour of 

 the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts. In England the breeding-season of 

 the common ringed plover commences in March, and the flocks which have collected 

 during the winter begin to break up into pairs ; the eggs are not, however, laid till 

 April, May, or June, and have been found as late as August. When their breeding- 

 grounds are visited, the birds exhibit but little anxiety, as their protective coloration 

 renders the eggs very difficult of detection. 



The sand- The sand-plovers, as typically represented by the Kentish plover 



Plovers. (JZgialophiliis cantianus), while agreeing with the ringed plovers in 

 the absence of the first toe, and their white abdomen, are distinguished by the lack 

 of a distinct dark band near the end of the tail-feathers, and also by the white 

 bases of the outer webs of the innermost primary quills ; the latter feature forming 

 a white wing-patch somewhat similar to that occurring in the common ringed 

 plover and its allies, although smaller. There are some twenty species of sand- 



