70 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



Family- CHARADRIID^. 



Lesser Ringed-Plover. 



yUgialiiis curonica, GmEL. 



THOUGH this bird has repeatedly been recorded as having been seen and 

 shot in Great Britain, the undoubted instances of its occurrence, as attested 

 by the production of the bird's skin, are few indeed, probably not more than a 

 dozen in number. The smaller race of the Common Ringed-Plover, which occurs 

 on migration on our coasts, has been the cause of this confusion. A few undoubted 

 instances are : — one Shoreham (Doubleday) ; one Chichester (Borrer) ; one Scilly, 

 October 23rd, 1863 (Rodd) ; two Kingsbury Reservoir, Middlesex, August, 1864 

 (Harting and Witford) ; one in the National Collection from the Isle of Wight, 

 etc., etc. 



The Lesser Ringed-Plover has possibly, though not probably, occurred as a 

 rare straggler in Iceland and the Faroes. It breeds in Scandinavia, Russia, and 

 thence across Asia, but rarely north of lat. 60°. It breeds in considerable numbers 

 in Germany, Poland, Denmark, Southern France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and South 

 Europe generally. In Holland and Belgium, suitable breeding grounds being 

 wanting, it is chiefly a bird of passage. In Asia it is found in Palestine in the 

 summer, (though absolute evidence of its nesting there is wanting), but it breeds 

 across Turkestan and South Siberia, to North China and Japan. I have an 

 example shot six hundred miles up the Yangtse-Kiang. In Turkestan it is found 

 nesting four thousand feet above sea-level, and in Kashgar even reaches an altitude 

 of twelve thousand feet. In Africa it breeds in small numbers along the north 

 coast, including Egypt, whence I have eggs. Its winter quarters are in North 

 Africa, descending as far as Mozambique (Peters), on the east side, and the 

 Gaboon (Du Chaillu), on the west. It has been obtained in Mauritius, but does 

 not appear to have occurred m the Canarian group. Throughout Southern Asia 

 in winter to the Philippines, and N. Malaysia as far as New Guinea. It gets its 

 specific name from Courland (Curonia, Latine), where it is abundant. 



Colour of adult male : bill black, with a small yellow spot at the base of the 

 lower mandible ; iris umber ; forehead, chin, and throat, white, the latter extending 

 into a white collar; lores and ear-coverts black; a broad black band over the 



