CHARADRIIDrE — THE PLOVERS — J2GTALITIS. 
159 
This somewhat cosmopolitan species is found throughout the northern and central 
portions of Europe, and is particularly common in Great Britain, where it occurs 
throughout the year. It especially frequents inlets and bays, where it feeds at low 
water, on the flats along the coast, at points where the ebb of the tide exposes 
extended surfaces. This bird is also found on the banks of large rivers, and is occa- 
sionally met with about the margin of inland sheets of water. Asa species it is very 
abundant, and its habits are described as lively and interesting. 
Mr. Yarrell mentions that these birds have been found breeding on the warrens of 
Beachamwell and at Elveden, and on other warrens and heaths near Tlietford in Nor- 
folk, and in several other sandy warrens in Norfolk and in Suffolk, at a considerable 
distance from the sea. They are said to pair and nest very early in the season. Mr. 
Salmon found them sitting on their eggs as early as the 30th of March. Like all 
the birds of this genus, the Bing Plover makes no other nest than a slight cavity in 
the sand, in which its four eggs are laid ; but it sometimes lines or covers this cavity 
with a number of small stones about the size of peas, upon which the eggs are laid. 
This very peculiar habit of the species has given rise to the local name, by which 
it is known in some of the counties of England, of Stonehatch. 
When robbed of its eggs, this Plover will lay another set of four ; and this it will 
do three or four times in a season if as often despoiled. 
Others of this species deposit their eggs in any accidental depression on a bank of 
sand, broken shells, or shingle above high-water mark. The parent birds are devoted 
in their attachment to their young ; and when disturbed resort to various devices and 
expedients to divert attention from their eggs or nestlings. The similarity in color, 
both of their young and of the eggs, to the surrounding objects is a great source of 
security, rendering it difficult to distinguish them. 
The food of the Binged Plover consists of insects, worms, and various forms of 
marine life, thin-shelled Crustacea, etc., with which salt-water pools abound. Their 
note is said to be a shrill whistle. 
This species is migratory in the high northern latitudes, in which it breeds, and in 
which it is found only in the summer, or from March to October. Hewitson found 
it throughout Norway, and Linnaeus met with it in various parts of Lapland in his 
journey, even as far north as the Lapland Alps. Scoresby, in his Journal, mentions 
having met with this bird on the east coast of Greenland ; and other Arctic explorers 
have observed it on the west coast of the same island, at Prince Begent’s Inlet, and 
at Hecla Cove. In the interior of Europe it is seen on the banks of rivers. Yarrell 
states that it occurs as far south as Italy and Sicily, and also in Malta ; and specimens 
have been received from Asia Minor. 
The eggs of this Plover measure 1.41 inches in length by 1.06 inches in breadth, 
and are pyriform in shape ; their ground is of a pale buff or cream color, spotted and 
streaked with lines and blotches of bluish-ash and black. 
.ffigialitis curonica. 
THE LITTLE RINGED PLOVER. 
Charadrius curonicus, Gmel. S. N. I. 1788, 692. 
JEgialitis curonica, Gray, Cat. Brit. B. 1863, 141. — Hasting, Hanclb. Brit. B. 1872, 134. — 
Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 519. — Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 590. 
Charadrius philippinus, Lath. Ind. Orn. II. 1790, 745. 
Charadrius fluviatilis, Bechst. Nat. Vog. Deutschl. 1809, 422. 
Charadrius minor, Meyer & Wolf, Tascli. Vug. Deutschl. II. 1810, 324. 
