THE RINGED PLOVER. 99 



cubbin, at a short distance from the shore of Strangford lough. When 

 ploughing the fields, the ploughman observed the eggs, and removed 

 them, together with the clod of earth on which they lay, to a short 

 distance in the ground already ploughed. In the course of the same 

 day the bird was observed sitting on the eggs, which she succeeded in 

 hatching. 



" I have heard of instances of ringed dotterels depositing their eggs 

 on the dried wrack cast up by the sea in winter above the ordinary 

 high-water mark in Carnlough Bay (co. Antrim), but have never known 

 ' stems of dry grass,' (as mentioned by Mr. Selby), or any other sub- 

 stance employed, ■ to receive the eggs,' save that in one nest, to which 

 I called your attention last season, fragments of white shells had been 

 collected together on a bed of dark-coloured gravel, so as to form a 

 strong contrast in colour, not well calculated to avoid observation."* 



P. S. — Since writing the foregoing note, I have examined upwards of twenty 

 nests of the ringed dotterel on the shores and islands of Strangford Lough, and, with 

 a few exceptions, they contained fragments of shells of various kinds, evidently 

 carried to the spot by the bird. In one instance the eggs were deposited on dried 

 sleech-grass (Zostera marina), which had been cast on shore by a high tide in 

 winter. 



11th June, 1849." 



All the ringed plover produced in Ireland, form, I conceive, but 

 a small proportion of those which frequent the coast for three - 

 fourths of the year, and as numerously in winter as at any other 

 period. t Daring many consecutive years I remarked this species 

 to congregate in Belfast bay towards the time of its departure 



* This nest which was pointed out to me on the 1st of July, 1848, was placed 

 several yards lower down on the pure gravelly beach than the line of broken shells, 

 among which it could hardly have been discovered. It was in fomi deeper thau a 

 saucer, and wholly constructed of the shells of the common cockle (Cardium edule), 

 which, in consequence of their whiteness, rendered it quite conspicuous among the 

 dark grey gravel. It contained four eggs. The bird, perceiving our approach from 

 a distance, left the nest, and ran seaward in perfect silence. There was another 

 uest very near, among the shingle, the young birds of which were able to fly, and 

 were then feeding along the margin of the water. 



On the 8th of May, 1849, a nest, containing four eggs, half incubated, was found 

 on the Kinnegar. 



t In January 1849 I observed them on the sandy shores of Islay, off the western 

 coast of Scotland ; they breed commonly in the island. The ringed plover was re- 

 marked by the late Mr. Geo. Matthews to be plentiful in summer along the coast of 

 Norway, from Trondjeim to the Alten Fiord. In winter they also appeared at some 

 parts of the coast, but in much smaller numbers. 



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