138 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
Hasrrs or trun Kestisa Prover. —About the middle of April the 
Kentish Plover arrives in this country; and, as its principal breeding-places 
are along the south-east and south coasts of Kent, it at once repairs to these 
spots. Nidification, or rather propagation, begins soon after, depending a 
good deal on the season. The weather in May, 1878, having been warm, the 
young were hatched by the end of that month; last season being as much 
against them as the previous one was in their favour, I found eggs only half 
incubated by the beginning of June. The eggs, which are three in number,-— 
not four, as is usual with other species of the genus,—are generally laid on 
the bare beach. Occasionally the bird will deposit them on a heap of sea- 
weed which has been thrown up bya very high tide. The most usual 
place is on small pebbles through which a little grass grows. Where the 
eggs are so deposited, it lays its first egg on the stones without any 
attempt at a nest, but twists a few pieces of the surrounding grass amongst 
the pebbles, so that by the time the three are deposited there is a scanty 
apology for a nest. If put off the eggs, the bird will retire to a short 
distance and utter a plaintive whistle, run a few yards, then fly a little, and 
drop and run again. As soon, however, as the young are hatched its 
manner is quite different; it will then fly very close round, giving at 
each stroke of the wings a sharp whistle, then drop suddenly, as if shot, 
crouch very close, expand its wings and tail, and drag itself along, then 
suddenly take wing again, and go through the same motions till the intruder 
is at a safe distance. The call-note is a soft whistle quickly repeated four 
or five times. The young, which run as soon as they are hatched, keep 
close to the parent birds till well able to shift for themselves. The food of 
this species consists of insects and small worms, which it picks up at the 
water’s edge and on the beach, when its form and manner much resemble 
the Sanderling, the head being drawn in, the body nearly horizontal, and 
the thighs concealed among the feathers of the under plumage. There is a 
species of spider which has hitherto baffled my attempts at capture on 
account of the rapidity with which it travels among the stones, and which 
is found in great abundance on the beach, and as the bird is often seen 
running very nimbly over the stones and occasionally darting its head down 
it may fairly be presumed that this insect constitutes a good deal of its 
food. If the eggs are approached, but not too nearly, the bird may be seen 
to run among the grasses, and every now and then raise itself on its legs” 
and stretch its neck to see and uot be seen. It possesses great powers of 
ventriloquism. I have stood still and tried for some minutes to discover 
one which was in an entirely different place to what I had supposed from 
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