RINGED PLOVER. 
297 
In a long ramble along the Northumberland coast, in 
company with my friends the Messrs. Hancock, during 
the first week of the month of June, we found several 
of their eggs, some quite fresh; though, at the same 
time, young birds were running upon the sand. Of the 
two figures in the plate, the first is the most common 
both as regards shape and colour; the other variety is, 
however, frequent. 
Mr. Newton tells me that this species is one of the 
earliest breeders, that there are generally eggs by the 
end of March, that it breeds abundantly on the dry 
and sandy warrens in Norfolk and Suffolk, without re¬ 
gard to their distance from the coast, that the hole which 
it scrapes for its nest in the sand is afterwards half filled 
with small stones, a habit which gives the bird the local 
name of Stonehatch, and that although it is generally 
two or three years before these holes become effaced, he 
has never known them occupied a second time. 
