ii8 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



the banks of rivers, and inland lakes and pools. It often wanders 

 up rivers for great distances inland, and shows a special preference 

 for those in which numerous sandbanks occur, and the shores 

 are pebble-strewn. Water, however, does not always seem essential 

 to this species, and it is sometimes met with on dry fallows and 

 desert plains some distance from that element. It is a thorough 

 ground bird, and spends most of its time running about the gravel 

 and the sand in quest of food. From time to time it indulges in 

 short flights, just above the ground or water, which are moderately 

 quick, and performed by rapid and regular beats of the long and 

 somewhat arched wings. It is said to be m.ore shy than its larger 

 congener, but certainly this is not my experience. I met with this 

 charming little bird in the rapidly drying up Oued, at Biskra, on 

 the confines of the Great Desert. It was in May, and all were in 

 pairs, apparently for the breeding season. They frequented the 

 pebble-strewn dry bed of the river, as well as the strips of sand in 

 mid-stream, and I repeatedly saw them soaring above scrub- 

 clothed ground at some little distance from the actual bed of the 

 stream. The note of the Little Ringed Plover is a loud, clear, 

 and somewhat plaintive /^«, rendered by Naumann as ded, rapidly 

 repeated when the bird is alarmed. In spring, during the pairing 

 season, the male also utters a by no means unmusical trill as it 

 soars up like a lark, and gradually descends again. The males I 

 noticed at Biskra kept the air for some little time, careering about 

 after they reached the zenith of their flight just as the Sky Lark so 

 frequently does. The food of this species is composed largely of 

 insects, especially beetles, grubs, and worms. Even during winter 

 this bird is never so gregarious as the Ringed Plover, and as often 

 as not is met with alone, although others are usually in the 

 immediate neighbourhood. 



Nidification. — The Little Ringed Plover arrives at its 

 European breeding grounds in April, but the eggs are seldom 

 laid before the middle or end of May, and sometimes not until 

 the beginning of June. The eggs are laid in a little hollow in 

 the sand or shingle, which the parent bird scratches out for their 

 reception, and no lining ever appears to be inserted. They are 

 four in number, very pyriform, buff in ground colour, speckled 

 and streaked with various shades of brown and ink-gray, most 



