24^ THE KENTISH PLOVER 



to run as soon as they break the shell ; but, having no power of 

 flight for a long time, avoid impending danger by scattering and 

 hiding among the stones. The old bird, on such occasions, uses 

 her wings ; but not to desert her charge. She flies up to the intruder, 

 and, like other members of the same family, endeavours to entice 

 him away by counterfeiting lameness or some injury. 



The Ringed Plover sometimes goes inland to rear her young, and 

 lays her eggs in a sandy warren, on the bank of a river or the margin 

 of a lake ; but when the young are able to fly, old and young together 

 repair to the seashore, collecting in flocks, and for the most part 

 continuing to congregate until the following spring. Their flight is 

 rapid and sweeping, consisting of a succession of curves, while per- 

 forming which they show sometimes their upper grey plumage, and 

 at other times the under, which is of a dazzling white. Occasionally, 

 too, as they wheel from one tack to another, every bird is lost sight 

 of, owing to the perfect unanimity with which, at the same instant, 

 they alter their course, and to the incapacity of the human eye to 

 foUow the rapid change from a dark hue to a light. 



Not unfrequently one falls in with a solitary individual which 

 has been left behind by its companions, or has strayed from the 

 flock. Such a bird, when disturbed, utters its whistle more fre- 

 quently than on ordinary occasions, and, as its note is not difficult 

 of imitation, I have often enticed a stray bird to fly close up to me, 

 answering all the while. But it has rarely happened that I have 

 succeeded in practising the deception on the same bird a second 

 time. 



THE KENTISH PLOVER 



.EGIALITIS CANTIANA 



Forehead, a band over each eye, chin, cheeks, and under parts, white ; upper 

 part of the forehead, a band from the base of the beak extending through 

 the eye, and a large spot on each side of the breast, black ; head and nape - 

 Ught brownish red ; rest of the upper plumage ash-brown ; two outer 

 tail-feathers white, the third whitish, the rest brown ; beak, irides, and 

 feet, brown. Female wants the black spot on the forehead, and the other 

 parts black in the male are replaced by ash-brown. Length six and a 

 half inches. Eggs olive-yellow, spotted and speckled with black. 



The Kentish Plover differs from the preceding in its inferior size, 

 in having a narrower stripe of black on the cheeks, and in wanting 

 the black ring round the neck. It is found from time to time in 

 various parts of the country, breeding in Kent, Sussex and the 

 Channel Islands, but is most abundant on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean. Its halDits resemble closely those of the allied species. 



On the authority of the Greek historian Herodotus, a little bird 

 is found in Egypt called the Trochilus, which is noted for the friendly 



