I had no difficulty in finding the young of both kinds ; and it was from those there obtained that the 
figures in the accompanying Plate were drawn. The young as well as the old of these two Plovers also differ in 
the colouring of their soft parts and in the size of their eyes. The characteristic markings of their eggs, too, 
are also very different. 
The visitor to Lydd will also see a fine colony of Black-headed Gulls in a rush-pit in the midst of the wastes, 
and both the Lesser and Common Terns in abundance. Had my visit to that enchanting spot been a year or 
two earlier, I might have observed the wandering Sand-Grouse, Syrrhaptes paradoxus^ dying to and fro ; for this 
was one of the localities they frequented when with us, and I had with me as a guide the person who com- 
mitted the barbarous act of shooting some of them. 
The Kentish Plover is a true spring migrant to our shores, and may be seen, at least sparingly, at that 
season on the coasts of Cornwall, Sussex, Suffolk, and Norfolk. It does not go so far north as Scotland ; 
but, according to Mr. Blake Knox, “ it has been obsen ed in a few instances during its migrations on the 
Dublin coast ; it is however, at all times a rare visitant to Ireland.” — Zoologist, 1866, p. 301. 
On the continent of Europe it is more abundant than with us. In some parts of Spain it is particularly 
numerous, and is found in still greater numbers over the whole of North Africa, and almost as far as the 
Cape Colony, as is evidenced by Mr. Anderson’s ‘Notes on the Birds of Damara Land,’ p. 272, where he 
says, “ This is rather a rare bird, and hardly to be found except on the sea-coast, in the neighbourhood of 
which it seeks its food on the open ground, interspersed with grass and aquatic herbage. It feeds on 
worms and insects, and also on the sandhoppers which abound on the beach of Walwich Bay, and of which 
it seems particularly fond. I have invariably found it in pairs, but have never met with its nest.” 
This species is also mentioned in Layard’s ‘ Catalogue of the Birds of Ceylon,’ p. 296 ; and, according to 
Messrs. Finsch and Hartlaub, it is found at Mozambique, vide ‘ Birds of East Africa,’ p. 654. 
As we learn from the writings of various authors, the Kentish Plover is particularly plentiful in India. 
Jerdon, when writing on the birds of this family, says it is more common than either /Egialitis Geoffroyii 
or pyrrhotliorax, “ being more frequently found far inland on the banks of rivers and large tanks, but 
prefers the neighbourhood of the sea-coast and large rivers near their mouths. It has a wide geographical 
distribution over the Old Continent. hiaticula, ntficcqnlla, and inormta of Gould, from Australia, are 
members of this group ; and there are others.” He then proceeds to remark, “ The next group is that of the 
Ringed Plovers, which frequent dry sandy plains,” clearly showing he considered these were two distinct but 
nearly allied forms — a view of the subject I myself took many years ago. 
Mr. Swinboe states, in his ‘ List of the Birds of China,’ that the Kentish Plover is found on the coasts of 
that country in winter. Tliis may be the case ; but I have seen specimens of a bird from thence which I 
consider distinct, but most nearly allied, and which certainly possesses characters that, if I may be allowed 
to speak from recollection, would render it necessary to give it a distinct specific appellation. 
The sexes of the Kentish Plover are nearly of the same size ; and the average weight is about two ounces. 
The Plate represents male and female, with young at the age of two or three days, of the natural size. 
