498 



fusca : corpore supra ut in adulto sed plumis in dorso vix pallidiore apicatis : corpore subtus albo, 

 gutturis lateribus fuscis et fascia indistincta in gutture imo pallide fusca. 



Adult Male (Pagham, Sussex, 4tb May). Fore part of tbe crown, a narrow line at the base of the upper 

 mandible, lores, and a patch through the eye and covering the auriculars, and a broad band crossing 

 the lower part of the throat, narrowing and meeting behind the neck, deep black ; forehead and a 

 bi'oad band passing above and behind the eye, throat, a collar passing round the neck above the 

 black one, and underparts of the body pure white ; hind crown, nape, and upper parts generally dull 

 hair-brown ; quills blackish brown, the shafts of almost all dark at the base and white towards the tip, 

 some of the inner primaries with a white mark on the centre of the outer web, secondaries white at the 

 base, one or two of the inner short ones almost pure white ; larger wing-coverts tipped with white ; 

 central tail-feathers hair-brown, becoming black towards the tip, remaining ones broadly tipped with 

 white, the outer ones almost pure white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white ; beak orange-yellow 

 at the base, black at the point; iris brown; legs orange; claws black. Total length about 7' 5 inches, 

 culmen 0"65, wing 50, tail 2 - 45, tarsus - 92. 



Adult Female. Differs from the male in being rather duller in colour, and in having the black bands and 

 collar narrower, and less pure in colour. 



Young of the year (Rye, Sussex, 8th September) . Upper parts as in the adult, but some of the dorsal 

 feathers with light edges ; the white on the forehead narrow, and the black frontal band on the head, 

 as well as that on the lower throat, wanting ; patch through the eye and auriculars dull dark brown ; 

 underparts white, the sides of the upper breast and a narrow band across the lower throat dull brown, 

 the latter indistinct in the centre. 



Nestling in down (German coast). Forehead white; crown greyish brown, mottled with light stone-grey; 

 from the base of the bill round the nape a black band passes, and is broadest on the nape ; a broad 

 collar round the neck and the entire underparts pure white; back and upper parts generally greyish 

 stone-brown, finely mottled with dirty white and blackish brown. 



Adult in winter (Pagham, Sussex, 3rd December). Differs from the adult in summer dress merely in having 

 the black portions of the plumage sullied with dull greyish. 



Obs. Specimens of the Ringed Plover vary greatly in size ; and, so far as I can judge from many specimens 

 examined, there appear to be two races found on our coasts, differing only in size — one larger, and the 

 other smaller ; but specimens vary so much, inter se, that it is impossible to draw the line between them. 

 The largest and smallest males in the series are both from Pagham, in Sussex : the former measures — 

 culmen 072, wing 5*55, tail 2'75, tarsus l'l ; and the latter — culmen 065, wing 4'97, tail 2'42, tarsus 

 0*98. And a specimen from Djeddah, on the Red Sea, agrees precisely both in plumage and measure- 

 ments with the latter specimen. 



The common Einged Plover is found throughout the whole of Europe, in Africa as far south as 

 the Cape colony, eastward into Western Asia; and it has also been recorded by Mr. Gould 

 from Australia. 



In Great Britain it is very generally distributed, and is found at all seasons of the year, 

 frequenting the coasts, chiefly in bays and inlets. Mr. Robert Gray speaks of it as being common 

 on the coasts of Scotland and the islands off the same ; and Dr. Saxby says that in no part of the 



