270 CIIARADRIID.E. 



292. ^Eg-ialitis cantiana (Latham). The Kentish Plover. 



Moorish. Bou-hejaira (father of stones, Fauier}. Spanish. 

 Charran, Andarios. 



" This bird is very Abundant near Tangier, and generally found 

 at the mouths of rivers. Many are resident, those which are 

 migratory arriving during September and October, leaving north- 

 wards in March and April." Favier. 



The Kentish Plover is by far the most plentiful of the sea- 

 shore Waders on the Spanish side ; and they are always very 

 tame, being seldom molested by the Spaniards. The local name 

 of Charran, which I have heard for them near Gibraltar, signifies 

 a low unmitigated blackguard, and the application of which to 

 this harmless and charming bird is not easy to understand. This 

 name is also applied near Malaga to some species of Terns. 



This little Plover is found throughout the year, but is most 

 abundant during the seasons of migration ; they are very active, 

 nimble little birds, running along the shore sometimes in front 

 and within a yard of one's horse's feet ; frequently running out 

 on the wet sand as one wave recedes, to rush back again as 

 another returns, like the Sanderling ; but they are much too 

 agile ever to be caught by the influx. 



About the 20th of April they commence to lay their four stone - 

 coloured eggs, marked with black spots and streaks. Some regu- 

 larly breed on the dry sandy hillocks and banks near the mouth 

 of the First River (Guadarranque) ; but, like the other species of 

 jEgialitis, they frequently nest far away from the shore, as on the 

 dried mud of the marisma. Verner took four fresh eggs on the 

 9th of May, 1879, near Gibraltar, and he remarks that the 

 Kentish Plover in England nearly always lays only three eggs ; 

 that is to say, between 1885 and 1893, of many nests he saw 

 only one contained four eggs, and the fishermen about Dungeness, 

 who rob the nests for collectors, assert that three eggs and no 

 more is the invariable number. 



Bill and legs black. 



