THE KENTISH PLOVEE. 
105 
sidered more numerous during the autumn of 1848 in Belfast 
bay than had ever before been known. 
I have since learned, from Robert J. Montgomery, Esq., that 
two Kentish plover were shot in Dublin bay in the autumn of 
1846, both of which he saw in the hands of the shooter. He 
fortunately procured one of them. They were killed from a flock 
of eight, said to have been very tame, and apart from other birds. 
The specimen obtained was kindly sent from Dublin for my in- 
spection. 
From the occurrence, in autumn, of the Kentish plover in two 
years, it might be imagined that, like many other birds, they 
visited the island in passing southward from their more northern 
breeding places ; but we have no record of their having any such 
haunts, from which they would be likely to migrate along the eastern 
shores of Ireland. We would appear to have something yet to 
learn of the geographical distribution of the species. Indeed, 
from the circumstance of the Kentish plover being known to visit 
the shores of Kent and Sussex only, in Great Britain, for the pur- 
pose of breeding (arriving in April, and departing in August), 
and to have been seen but in one other county — Norfolk,* it 
would have been a fair inference, previous to the occurrence of 
the bird in Ireland, that the south-east coast of England was the 
extreme north-west limit of its migratory range. The north of 
Germany is the highest latitude in Europe which it was known 
by Temminck to visit ; but in a subsequent work its range is 
extended a little farther, — to the south of Sweden.f It is not 
known in North America, but is said to be found in Siberia. J 
The more southern shores — as those of the Mediterranean, &c. — 
are its chief haunt in Europe. 
Yarrell, Brit. Birds (1845). 
t Keyserling and Blasius. 
t Schlegel. 
