164 
CHAEADRIID.-E. 
dullwillioo. These cries are constantly uttered when the bird is 
flying round a trespasser upon the breeding-grounds, and to 
these are added some peculiar creaking sounds, which can only 
he heard at a short distance. Late upon a moonless night, 
when it has seemed scarcely possible for birds to see to feed, 
I have got quite close to small flocks feeding at the water’s 
edge, although when yet distant their cry of warning was to be 
heard. When taken young, the Einged Plover makes a very 
interesting pet, soon becoming very tame ; it is not a little per- 
plexing to a stranger, on first taking possession of his lodgings, 
to hear its wild notes proceeding from under the sofa, or from 
behind the window curtains. 
After reading Mr Stevenson’s account of this bird (‘'Birds of 
ISTorfolk,” vol. ii. p. 95), I sought most carefully for the smaller 
variety, and though I certainly met with a few individuals of 
less than ordinary size, and with the forehead somewhat nar- 
rower than usual, the outer tail feathers were invariably white, 
without any spot upon either web. Fineness and length in the 
claws seems scarcely to be a safe indication of specific differ- 
ence, the claws of most young waders having that pecuEarity 
Ijefore they become abraded by the sand and gravel 
The spring note is sometimes heard as early as the end of 
January, but the birds do not return to the breeding-grounds 
before March, when pairing immediately commences. The nest 
is most often found upon the beach, a little above high-water 
mark, among sand or gravel; but most of the shores being 
rocky and precipitous, the sides or even the very tops of the 
hills are frequently resorted to. So common are the nests in 
these situations that I have found three, quite accidentally, in 
the course of a hurried walk of less than two miles over the 
hills between Balta Sound and Haroldswick, and I have even 
known of nests in the ploughed fields. The favourite breeding- 
ground in the neighbourhood of Balta Sound is situated about 
half a mile inland, at the foot of a range of steep hills, and 
with a large extent of cultivated land lying between it and the 
sea. Nests upon the hills are invariably found in the bare 
