178 



BIRD GALLERY. 



for nesting-purposes. In summer the food consists of berries, worms, 

 molluscs, etc., hut in winter crustaceans and other marine animals are 

 eaten. The nest, a slight hollow in the ground, lined with bits of dry 

 herbage, is usually situated among heather, bog-myrtle, or grass. The 

 four large pear-shaped eggs vary in tint from olive-green to brownish- 

 buff, and are spotted and blotched with brown and purplish-grey. 



Inverness-shire, April. 



Presented by Lord Lovat. 



No. 112. KENTISH PLOVER, (^gialitis alexandrina.) 



A summer visitor to the south of England, arriving in April and 

 usually migrating southward in September. It breeds in some numbers 

 on the shores of Kent and Sussex, occasionally wanders westward to 

 Devon and Cornwall, and has been met with on the east coast as far 

 north as Yorkshire. The eggs, usually three in number, are deposited 

 in a hollow scratched in the sand or among fine shingle : they are buff, 

 spotted and streaked with blackish-brown and grey. 



Both the eggs and young birds are difficult to distinguish from their 

 surroundings. The two nests exhibited were from the same locality, 

 but were placed at some distance apart. 



Kent : eggs. May ; young birds, June. 



Presented by Colonel L. H. Irby ^ Colonel Willoughby Verner, 



No. 113. RINGED PLOVER, (^gialitis hiaticola.) 



The larger race of the Ringed Plover, sometimes called the Ringed 

 Dotterel, is more or less resident throughout the British Islands, and 

 inhabits the flat sandy portions of our coasts, as well as the shingly 

 banks of the larger rivers and inland lakes. A smaller race visits our 

 shores for a brief period in spring and, possibly, a few remain to breed 

 in Sussex and Kent. The four eggs are laid in a hollow in the sand, 

 often lined with fragments of shells ; they are pale buff or stone-colour, 

 spotted with black and grey. Two broods are usually reared in a 

 season. 



Both the eggs and young birds so closely resemble their surroundings 

 that they are difficult to find, 



Sussex, May. 

 Presented by Mr. Walter Burton. 



