190 CHARADRIID.E. 



GRALLATORES. ClIARADRIWiE. 



PLATE CCXXV. 



KENTISH PLOVER. 



CHARADRIUS CANTIANUS. 



The Kentish Plover has been sometime known as a sum- 

 mer visitant in Great Britain, specimens having been obtained 

 as early as the year 1787, according to Dr. Latham, and its 

 name was given it in consequence of the locality where it was 

 first met with and noticed. Divers other specimens have 

 since come under the notice of ornithologists, not only on the 

 coast of Kent, but in Suffolk and Norfolk. This species is 

 very generally distributed over the milder countries of Europe, 

 Asia, and North Africa ; in Europe it periodically visits 

 Britain, France, Holland, the shores of the Adriatic, the 

 Baltic, and the Mediterranean. It rarely ascends as far 

 north as Sweden, as the climate does not suit its habits. In 

 Asia it inhabits Tartary, and in Africa, Egypt and Nubia. 



In the true sense of the word the Kentish Plover is 

 a sea-coast bird, and rarely occurs on the banks of rivers or 

 sweet water. During the time of migration it frequents 

 the mouths of large rivers, and the islands that are along 

 the coasts, but at most times of the year it is exclusively 

 to be met with on the immediate sea-shores. 



By the end of April and during May this species arrives 

 from the warmer climes, at its breeding places, which consist 

 in the grass-covered ridges of low land that are broken 

 by unusual high tides, or that are kept very short of vegeta- 

 tion by the occasional feeding of cattle, when the season 

 allows it ; the ground that is covered with maritime plants, 

 and here and there interrupted by barren sand, that is partly 

 bestrewed with mussel-shells and small Crustacea, generally 



