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ON THE NESTING HABITS OF THE EINGED PLOVER, 

 jEGIALITIS H1ATICULA. 



By the Editor. 



My object in penning a few lines under this heading is not to 

 furnish an exhaustive account of the behaviour of this species 

 during the breeding season, but merely to direct attention to the 

 protective coloration of its eggs when laid upon the bare pebbles 

 of the beach, as shown in the accompanying illustration, which 

 has been reproduced from a photograph taken by an enthusiastic 

 naturalist, Mr. C. E. Salmon, of Reigate. 



The Ringed Plover is one of the commonest of British shore 

 birds, and next to the Dunlin (Purre, Stint, or Oxbird, as it is 

 variously termed), it is perhaps the most numerous. The two 

 species are frequently found in company, feeding and flying 

 together, resting at high tide upon the great ridges of pebble 

 beach that on some parts of the coast extend for miles and miles, 

 or retiring further inland to the little pools about the salt-marshes, 

 there to while away the time until the tide turns, when they again 

 make their way to the coast-line, or to the great mud-flats inter- 

 sected by creeks which are left exposed at low water about the 

 mouths of the tidal rivers. 



The Ringed Plover, or Ringed Dotterel, has as many provincial 

 names as the Dunlin. On the coasts of Kent and Sussex it is 

 variously known as " Shell-turner," " Wideawake," and " Stone- 

 runner"; while in Norfolk it is known as " Stonehatch," from its 

 observed habit of occasionally paving with small stones the hollow 

 in which its eggs are usually deposited. This, however, is by no 

 means a general practice. I have found a great many nests of 

 this bird on the great pebble ridge at Pagham, Sussex, on Lydd 

 Beach, Kent, and amongst the sand-dunes which fringe the coasts 

 of Norfolk and Lancashire, and in many cases the eggs were 

 deposited in mere depressions of the beach, or in hollows between 

 the sand-hills, without any paving of small stones, or other 

 materials. On the other hand, according to Prof. Newton, the 

 nests are sometimes " deep holes apparently found by the birds 

 themselves, and having at the bottom a considerable number of 

 small stones, almost enough to fill half the hole, and neatly 

 arranged. On this pavement, whence (as he says) they derive 



