THE RING-PLOVER. 119 



are more slender and expanded, and indicate more a habit of 

 walking on soft sand, or the more firm and consistent banks 

 of ooze and mud. 



The haunts of the two species correspond with those differ- 

 ences of structure, the Kentish plover having been found 

 only upon the accumulations of shells and shingle, while the 

 ring-plover is met with upon most of the flat beaches, what- 

 ever may be their composition. Both birds have, however, 

 the Mils of true plovers ; and thus neither of them dabbles in 

 water or mud for its food, but rather picks up small animals 

 in the firm places. The ring may, indeed, be considered as a 

 sand-bird ; the Kentish as a shingle-bird ; and as such, the 

 shores of Kent and Sussex, strewed as they are with flint 

 pebbles, intermingled with broken shells, are much more in 

 accordance with the structure of the Kentish than those por- 

 tions of the shore which, from the nature of the strata 

 through which the rivers have cut their way, are covered 

 more with sand in a state of minute division, than with 

 pebbles. 



The ring-plover is about seven inches in length, and six- 

 teen in i:he extent of the wings ; its weight is about two 

 ounces. 



The male, in the summer or breeding plumage, has the 

 crown of the head and the back brownish ash ; the cheeks 

 black, meeting over the base of the upper mandible, and with 

 a band of white passing over the forehead and eyes, and a 

 black patch above that of a triangular form, with one angle 

 forwards, and one towards each eye, so that the line where that 

 meets the ash colour on the fore part of the crown is straight ; 

 the chin white, the points extending backwards nearly to the 

 nape ; a gorget of black on the neck, broad in front, and 

 reaching the upper part of the breast, but narrowing back- 

 wards on the under sides till it forms a very narrow collar on 

 the back of the neck ; the scapulars and wing coverts brownish 



