THE KENTISH PLOVER. 525 



Min. : 27.3x21.1 and 28.6x21 mm. Breeding -season. — Exception- 

 ally from mid -March in Mediterranean, but normally from April in 

 south Europe and late May in north to June. Incubation. — Appar- 

 ently by both sexes. Period 22 to 24 days. Single brooded. 

 Food. — Chiefly insects and their larvae (small coleoptera, diptera 

 and larvae of Phryganeidse). 



Distribution. — Great Britain. — Very rare vagrant. Some ten 

 authentic examples recorded. Sussex two ; Scilly one, Oct. 23, 

 1863 ; Middlesex two, Aug., 1864 ; Isle of Wight one, Aug., 1864 

 (Saunders, p. 541) ; Christchurch (Hants.), Aug., 1860, and April 28, 

 1879 ; Rye (Sussex), April, 1914 ; North Uist (O. Hebrides) (prob- 

 ably Oct.), 1908. Also one from Aberdeen recorded by Sims. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Nests in north, central and south Europe, 

 as well as in north-west Africa and Canaries, eastwards through 

 northern Asia (south to Turkestan) to Japan. Winters in Africa, 

 India, and Malayan Archipelago. Casual in N. America. Replaced 

 by allied race in India, Borneo and New Guinea (but to latter two 

 countries probably only migrant), and by another in Philippine 

 Islands, south China and islands. 



CHARADRIUS ALEXANDRINUS 



376. Charadrius alexandrinus alexandrinus L. — THE KENTISH 

 PLOVER. 



Charadrius alexandrinus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, i, p. 150 (1758 — - 



Egypt). 



Charadrius cantianus Latham, Index Orn. Suppl., p. lxvi (1801 — Kent. 



Name misspelt cantiacus by Salvin, Fritsch, and others). 



Mgialitis cantiana (Latham), Yarrell, in, p. 267 ; Saunders, p. 543. 



Description. — Adult male. Winter. — Fore-head white ; fore-part 

 of crown black, feathers faintly edged tawny ; crown and nape 

 ash -brown, feathers narrowly edged tawny ; nape with a white 

 collar ; mantle and scapulars ash-brown, feathers faintly edged 

 sandy ; back and rump pale brown, sides of rump white ; upper 

 tail-coverts pale brown fringed tawny, outer ones white ; lores and 

 band below eye black intermixed dusky-brown, feathers faintly 

 edged white ; eye -stripe white washed tawny towards nape ; ear- 

 coverts black-brown or dusky-brown ; whole under -parts white 

 except for two patches of black (feathers narrowly edged white) 

 more or less intermixed with ash -brown at sides of upper -breast ; 

 tail-feathers pale brown, central pair sepia, three outer pairs white ; 

 primaries pale sepia with white shafts which from 3rd inwards are 

 brown proximally, inner primaries with outer webs largely white ; 

 secondaries pale brown with white tips, inner webs paler, inner 

 secondaries pale smoke -brown with white on margins of both webs, 

 innermost pale ash-brown ; primary-coverts sepia, inner ones 

 tipped white ; greater coverts pale brown tipped white ; median 

 and lesser coverts ash-brown, narrowly edged sandy. This plumage 



