74 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



for British-taken specimens, {i.e., with an unlucky propensity to hasten the extinction 

 of any scarce and interesting bird that may linger on in their own country), have 

 harried the Kentish Plover till its final disappearance from our shores as a breeding 

 bird is only too likely. I am happy to think that I have no British eggs of any 

 failing species — I prefer to have them from a foreign locality where, from their 

 comparative abundance, they will not be missed. 



The nest is a mere hollow in the sand, or shingle, but sometimes (Htilshoff, 

 Vogelw: Bork:) amongst wirj- grass, and slightly concealed ; four eggs are laid, or 

 sometimes three, with small ends inward, and often downward. In Spain and the 

 south they usually seem to lay three only. Occasionally (Dombrain, Zool., 1880, 

 p. 138) the eggs are placed amongst stranded sea-weed and other "sea-ware" at 

 spring-tide mark. The eggs are dull and rough in texture, of a greyer drab than 

 those of either of the foregoing species, spotted and " scrawled " with dull bluish- 

 grey and black, (much more scrawled than those of the two other birds) ; in size 

 they vary from i\ to if inches in length, by ^ to nearly an inch in breadth. 

 (From S. Spanish eggs given to me by the late Lord Lilford). 



Like a good many of the other Limicolce, this bird performs in the breeding 

 season similar aerial evolutions to those of a "drumming" Snipe, accompanied by 

 a sound which is undoubtedly vocal, and not produced hy either wings or tail. 

 Also when the eggs are hatched, the parents go through various quasi-paralysed 

 manoeuvres, to draw off the attention of any person who is near their young. 

 Eggs are laid in Spain from mid- April ; in our latitudes, and in Sweden and 

 Denmark, about the first week in May. 



The food of this bird consists of small marine creatures, such as sand-hoppers. 

 It reaches its breeding quarters in Spain by the middle of March, (Chapman) ; in 

 England and Denmark by the end of that month, leaving for the south in 

 September. In Spain many winter. When mentioning it above as "resident" 

 anywhere, I do not wish to convey the impression that any individuals pass the whole 

 year there. Birds are migratory to a much greater extent than most people are 

 aware of. We all know that Swallows migrate, because in winter we have none. 

 But we are apt to assume that, because we have certain species of birds — Hedge- 

 Sparrows, for example — in our gardens all the year round, that this species is not 

 migratory. But go to the north of its range — to Finmark, sa}^ — and you find it 

 to be a summer visitor only, as Swallows are with us. Then go to Southern 

 Spain, and you find it to be a winter visitor ovXy, as Fieldfares are with us. It 

 is reasonable to suppose, then, that all individual Hedge- Sparrows move northwards 

 in spring, southwards in autumn, and that the individuals which breed with us, 

 winter further south, and vice versa. And herein consists the real value of albino 



