British Birds in Their Haunts

by C. A. Johns

Forehead, lore, sides of the face, gorget reaching round the neck, black; a band across the forehead and through the eyes, throat, a broad collar, and all the lower parts, white; upper plumage ash-brown; outer tail-feather white, the next nearly so, the other feathers grey at the base, passing into dusky and black, tipped with white, except the two middle ones, which have no white tips; orbits, feet and beak orange, the latter tipped with black. Young—colours of the head dull; gorget incomplete, ash-brown; bill dusky, tinged with orange at the base of the lower mandible; feet yellowish. Length seven and a half inches. Eggs olive-yellow, with numerous black and grey spots.

On almost any part of the sea-coast of Britain, where there is a wide expanse of sand left at low water, a bird may often be noticed, not much larger than a Lark, grey above and white below, a patch of black on the forehead and under the eye, a white ring round the neck, and a black one below. If the wind be high, or rain be falling, the observer will be able to get near enough to see these markings; for sea-birds generally are less acute observers in foul weather than in fair. On a nearer approach, the bird will fly up, uttering a soft, sweet, plaintive whistle of two notes, and, having performed a rapid, semicircular flight, will probably alight at no great distance, and repeat its note. If it has settled on the plain sand or on the water's edge, or near a tidal pool, it runs rapidly, without hopping, stoops its head, picks up a worm, a portion of shellfish, or a sand-hopper, runs, stops, pecks, and runs again, but does not allow any one to come so near as before. The next time that it alights, it may select, perhaps, the beach of shells and pebbles above high-water mark. Then it becomes at once invisible; or, if the observer be very keen-sighted, he may be able to detect it while it is in motion, but then only. Most probably, let him mark ever so accurately with his eye the exact spot on which he saw it alight, and let him walk up to the spot without once averting his eye, he will, on his arrival, find it gone. It has run ahead with a speed marvellous in so small a biped, and is pecking among the stones a hundred yards off. Its name is the Ringed Plover, or Ringed Dotterel. Fishermen on the coast call it a Stone-runner, a most appropriate name; others call it a Sea Lark. In ornithological works it is described under the former of these names.

The Ringed Plover frequents the shores of Great Britain all the year round. It is a social bird, but less so in spring than at any other season; for the females are then employed in the important business of incubation, and the males are too attentive to their mates to engage in picnics on the sands. The nest is a simple hollow in the sand, above high-water mark, or on the shingly beach; and here the female lays four large, pointed eggs, which are arranged in the nest with all the small ends together. The young are able to run as soon as they break the shell; but, having no power of flight for a long time, avoid impending danger by scattering and hiding among the stones. The old bird, on such occasions, uses her wings; but not to desert her charge. She flies up to the intruder, and, like other members of the same family, endeavours to entice him away by counterfeiting lameness or some injury.

The Ringed Plover sometimes goes inland to rear her young, and lays her eggs in a sandy warren, on the bank of a river or the margin of a lake; but when the young are able to fly, old and young together repair to the sea-shore, collecting in flocks, and for the most part continuing to congregate until the following spring. Their flight is rapid and sweeping, consisting of a succession of curves, while performing which they show sometimes their upper grey plumage, and at other times the under, which is of a dazzling white. Occasionally, too, as they wheel from one tack to another, every bird is lost sight of, owing to the perfect unanimity with which, at the same instant, they alter their course, and to the incapacity of the human eye to follow the rapid change from a dark hue to a light.

Not unfrequently one falls in with a solitary individual which has been left behind by its companions, or has strayed from the flock. Such a bird, when disturbed, utters its whistle more frequently than on ordinary occasions, and, as its note is not difficult of imitation, I have often enticed a stray bird to fly close up to me, answering all the while. But it has rarely happened that I have succeeded in practising the deception on the same bird a second time.

THE KENTISH PLOVER
ÆGIALITIS CANTIANA

Forehead, a band over each eye, chin, cheeks, and under parts, white; upper part of the forehead, a band from the base of the beak extending through the eye, and a large spot on each side of the breast, black; head and nape light brownish red; rest of the upper plumage ash-brown; two outer tail-feathers while, the third whitish, the rest brown; beak, irides, and feet, brown. Female wants the black spot on the forehead, and the other parts black in the male are replaced by ash-brown. Length six and a half inches. Eggs olive-yellow, spotted and speckled with black.

The Kentish Plover differs from the preceding in its inferior size, in having a narrower stripe of black on the cheeks, and in wanting the black ring round the neck. It is found from time to time in various parts of the country, breeding in Kent, Sussex and the Channel Islands, but is most abundant on the shores of the Mediterranean. Its habits resemble closely those of the allied species.