VISIT TO TERNERY AT WELLS-BY-THE-SEA. 369 
the bare sand, and then makes the nest of dried grass afterwards. 
The male seems to keep watch at a considerable distance from 
the nest. Their behaviour when sitting varies, some sitting very 
close, whilst others are shy. One bird whose nest I frequently 
passed this year would allow me to touch her back as she sat on 
the eggs, and I have before now accidentally trodden on a Red- 
shank sitting on her eggs. Sometimes the young leave the nest 
as they are hatched out, but this is not always the case, as I 
have found them in the nest the day after they were hatched. 
As a rule the old birds take them to the little creeks to feed, 
where they find small worms, sand-hoppers, and insects. When 
they are a day or two old they can already run very quickly on 
their long legs and hide, so that it would take hours to find them, 
although you saw within a little where they went into the weeds. 
‘‘The Ringed Plover is not nearly so shy as the Redshank. 
Pairing begins early in April, when the males can be seen fighting 
for the possession of the females. They fight very fiercely, 
rushing at each other with their beaks down and feathers 
bristling up. Sometimes four or five birds will be mixed up in 
one fight. They generally begin to lay in the last week in April. 
The nest is nearly always lined with small stones, but sometimes, 
when under the grass, it is a mere hollowin the sand. They 
often lure you away from the young when recently hatched, 
opening their tails and drawing them along like fans, or tumbling 
and scuffing along with one wing up and the other down, as if 
wounded. They do not forget to go the opposite way to that the 
young are running. Very often you can see hundreds of chicks 
running about on the edge of the sands, waiting for the tide to 
go out. Old and young keep together until August. In winter 
the Ringed Plovers form flocks, and frequent one place all the 
time if not shot at.” 
