RING PLOVER. 
357 
summer, forms its nest in the sand, and generally produces 
two broods in the season. Early in September the present 
species returns in flocks as before ; soon after this, the light- 
coloured kind go off to the south, but the other remain a full 
month later. European writers inform us, that the Ring 
Plover has a sharp twittering note ; and this account agrees 
exactly with that of the present : the light coloured species, 
on the contrary, has a peculiarly soft and musical note, similar 
to the tone of a German flute, which it utters while running 
along the sand, with expanded tail and hanging wings, 
endeavouring to decoy you from its nest. The present species 
is never seen to breed here ; and though I have opened great 
numbers of them as late as the 20th of May, the eggs which 
the females contained were never larger than small bird shot ;; 
while, at the same time, the light coloured kind had every 
where begun to lay in the little cavities which they had dug- 
in the sand on the beach. These facts being considered, it 
seems difficult to reconcile such difference of habit in one and 
the same bird. The Ring Plover is common in England, and 
agrees exactly with the one now before us ; but the light 
coloured species, as far as I can learn, is not found in Britain ; 
specimens of it have indeed been taken to that country, where 
the most j udicious of their ornithologists have concluded it to 
be still the Ring Plover, but to have changed from the effect 
of climate. Mr Pennant, in speaking of the true Ring Plover, 
makes the following remarks : 66 Almost all which I have seen 
from the northern parts of North America, have had the black 
marks extremely faint, and almost lost. The climate had 
almost destroyed the specific marks ; yet in the bill and habit 
preserved sufficient to make the kind very easily ascertained.”’ 
These traits agree exactly with the light coloured species, 
described in our fifth volume.* But this excellent naturalist 
was perhaps not aware that we have the true Ring Plover 
here in spring and autumn, agreeing in every respect with 
that of Britain, and at least in equal numbers ; why, therefore,. 
* Vol. II. p. 121 of this Edition. 
