BRITISH BIRDS 



says: "Their flight is rapid, even, performed by regularly-timed beats, and they 

 glide along, often at a very small height, or ascend, and perform various evolutions 

 before alighting, sometimes all the individuals in a flock inclining to one side, so as to 

 expose now their upper and again their lower surface to the spectator. Frequently 

 when feeding they intermix with Sandpipers, Turnstones, Redshanks, and other 

 species ; but in flying they generally keep apart. At high water they repose on 

 the sands or on the pastures, usually in a crouching posture. They are partly 

 nocturnal, and I have often found them searching for food by moonlight. As the 

 autumn advances, they collect into larger flocks, and at the mouths of rivers may 

 often be seen in very numerous bands. During winter and the greater part of spring 

 they continue along the sea-shore, none then being found by the rivers or lakes." 



The young, which leave the nest as soon as hatched, are at first clothed in down 

 of a mottled greyish-brown above and white beneath. In the immature birds, the 

 black bands on the forehead and breast are absent and the dark parts of the head 

 are brown, while the bill is blackish without any orange at the base, and the legs 

 and feet are dull yellow. 



The female resembles the male in colour, but is rather duller, while in winter 

 both sexes have the black markings less distinct. 



THE LITTLE RINGED PLOVER. 



Aigialitis curonica (J. F. Gmelin). 

 Plate 62. 



This species, smaller than our common Ringed Plover, differs also in having all 

 the shafts of the primaries dark, except the outer one, which is white. These shafts 

 in the larger bird are all marked with white, whilst the only yellow on the bill of 

 the present species is at the base of the lower mandible, and the legs and feet are of 

 an ochre colour instead of orange. 



The Little Ringed Plover is a rare straggler to the British Islands, eight having 

 been recorded in England and one in the Outer Hebrides. 



It nests in Spain and other parts of Southern Europe, ranging as far north as 

 Scandinavia, and eastwards throughout a great part of Asia to Japan. During the 

 breeding season it is also found in North-west Africa, and in winter visits Africa, 

 India, the Malay Archipelago, and wanders to New Guinea. 



According to Lord Lilford {Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British 

 Islands), " Except in the matter of its preference for the sandy banks of fresh- 



1 2 



