THE KENTISH PLOVER. 121 



than rudimental. It is some time before they acquire their 

 plumage, and are able to fly ; and till then, they squat and 

 skulk upon the sand, from which they are not very easily 

 distinguished. The birds pair early in May, and the brood 

 are in their unfledged state in the hottest and generally the 

 driest time of the season a time, however, at which small 

 insects are particularly abundant on the sands, so much so, 

 that they rise in absolute clouds from the surface as one 

 walks along. 



During the breeding season, the pairs and their broods dis- 

 perse themselves along the line of the beaches ; but when the 

 seasonal labour is over, they assemble in small flocks, and, 

 during the winter season, associate freely and peaceably with 

 many others of our littoral bird. 



Instead of there being, as has sometimes been said, several 

 varieties of this species, it really appears, if we except the 

 sexual and seasonal changes of its plumage, to be less liable 

 to varieties of colour than the others. The birds are very 

 generally distributed over the shores of the northern parts 

 of the world, and their plumage in Greenland does not differ 

 from that in the south of England ; indeed, they are admir- 

 ably fitted in their colours to such changes of temperature 

 as take place in their haunts. The white plumage of the 

 under part equally protects them from the great cold that is 

 sometimes produced by evaporation in the dry-frost winds of 

 winter, and from the joint action of the reflected and radiant 

 heat of the dry sand on the hot days of summer. 



THE KENTISH PLOVER (Chctradrius cantianus). 



The description of this smaller, and more beautiful, and, 

 because local, more interesting species, has been in part an- 

 ticipated; and the appearance of the male in his summer 

 plumage will be better understood from the figure on the 



