132 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CHAEADEIID^. Genus ^gialitis. 



Subfamily Ghaeadriinm. 



RINGED PLOVER. 



^GIALITIS HIATICULA— (Lwin^Ms). 



Charadrius hiaticula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 253 (1766 partim) ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. 

 p. 116 (1850 partim); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 20 (1885). 



/^gialitis hiaticula (Linn.), Dresser, B. Eur. p. 467, pi. 525 (1876 partim) ; Yarrell, 

 Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 257 (1883 partim) ; Lilford, Col. Pig. Brit. B. pt. xx (1891 

 partim) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 227 (1894). 



/Egialitis hiaticola (Linn.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 158 (1896 partim); 

 Sharps, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 256 (1896 partim). 



Geographical distribution — British: The small, dark race of the 

 Ringed Plover appears only to pass the British Islands on migration, although 

 there is some confirmatory evidence that a few pairs remain to breed on the 

 coasts of Kent and Sussex. During passage in spring (May and June) and 

 autumn (August, September, and October) it frequents most parts of the British 

 coasts suited to its requirements, and often follow^s the course of rivers for con- 

 siderable distances inland, and visits sheets of water far from the coast. Foreign: 

 Western Palsearctic region and North-eastern portion of Nearctic region. It 

 breeds in Cumberland Bay, on the American coast of Davis Strait ; on the coasts 

 of Greenland up to lat. 79° ; in Iceland, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and probably 

 Pranz Joseph Land. In summer it is found in suitable districts throughout 

 Europe north of the Alps, and breeds in Madeira, the Canaries (although Mr. 

 Meade Waldo records it as passing on migration only), and North Africa ; whilst in 

 winter it is found almost everywhere in the latter continent : although in the south 

 of that continent the explanation of this may be that a second set of individuals 

 migrate south from the tropics to breed, and are not northern individuals at all. In 

 Asia it is found in summer as far east as the Taimur Peninsula* in the north, 

 and Lake Baikal in the south, and breeds in Turkestan and Western Siberia. 

 The Asiatic birds pass south-west, by routes hitherto undiscovered, to the basin of 



* By some authorities this species is said to range east to Behring Straits, but the evidence is not 

 satisfactory, MgiaUns semipalmatus probably being mistaken for it. There can also be little doubt that 

 the Ringed Plover breeding in the extreme south of Greenland is MgiaUvs semipalmatus. The Nearctic 

 breeding range of the Ringed Plover requires much more careful definition. Possibly the bird may be a 

 Circum polar one during summer, and confined to the Old World during winter. 



