304 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



We have seen flocks of lling'erl Plovers sometimes many miles inland, 

 and have been told by a keeper, who recoj?nized the bird in our collection, 

 that they nest in places on the Wiltshire Downs, scratching Kttle holes in 

 the turf in which to deposit their eggs. 



There is a smaller race of Hinged Plover (by some ornithologists termed 

 ^jfjiaJ'dis intermedia, as by Menetries), which arrives on our coasts in 

 the spring, and is well known to the shore-shooters, who sa}- that its call 

 is different from that of the larger bird. We possess examples in all stages 

 of plumage, and it was an immature bird of this smaller race shot by iis 

 on the sands of the Taw which we once erroneously recorded as a specimen 

 of the Continental Little Pinged Plover (^lEf/ialiiis curonica, J. F. Gmelin) 

 CZool. 1S59, p. 6702), of which we have seen but one example which 

 had been obtained in the S.W. of England. This was in the collection of 

 Mr. E. H. Rodd, and had been received by him from Tresco, in the 

 Scilly Islands, where it had been shot on October 23rd, 1SG3, by his nephew, 

 Mr. F. li. llodd, who detected it to be a stranger by its single sharp 

 whistle, differing from the cry of the common Pinged Plover. The Little 

 Pinged Plover appears to prefer inland waters to the coast, being chiefly 

 observed on the Continent by the sides of rivers and freshwater lakes. It 

 has occurred only about four times in the South of England. 



[Observation. — Killdekr Plover (yFr/ialitis vocifera, Gould). This 

 Plover is one of the numerous American species which have appeared as 

 stragglers at the extreme south-west of the kingdom. American birds on 

 their migration, which have lost their reckoning in coming westwards by 

 Avav of Xorthern Asia and Europe, in working south again come down 

 the western coasts of Scotland and England, and, passing through the Irish 

 Channel, strike the ^'orth Devon coast, or, continuing a little further, land 

 ar last in the Land's End district of Cornwall, some few of them reaching 

 the Scilly Islands. It was at Tresco, on the Scilly Islands, that an example 

 of the Killdeer Plover was secured on loth January, l>iS5 (T. Cornish, 

 Zool. ISSo, p. 113). It was shot by Mr. Jenkinson, who was attracted 

 by its peculiar cry, and described it as " a large Pinged Plover with ash- 

 coloured legs, 1 ail-coverts chestnut-coloured, and tail very long." A 

 Kpecimen of this Plover had already occurred in England, one having 

 been shot near Christchurch, in Hampshire, in April 1S;57. The Killdeer 

 Plover is a very common species throughout the United States, resident, 

 and nesting almost everywhere.] 



Dotterel. Eudromias morinellus (Linn.). 



A casual visitor, of rare occurrence, in spring and autumn. 



If at any time the Dotterel nested on any of our Devonshire moorlands, 

 as it probably did not, being a bird of the Alpine type, or on the Mendip 

 plateau in Somerset, it certainly docs so no longer, and is at the present 

 time onlv occasionally seen on its passage in the spring and autumn. 

 Until recently a few used to nest on the mountains of the Lake District, 



