(Charadrius Morinellus, Linn.-Le Guignard, Buff.)

LENGTH about nine inches. The bill is black; eyes dark, large and full; forehead mottled with brown and white; top of the head black; over each eye an arched line of white passes to the hinder part of the neck; the cheeks and throat are white; the back and wings light brown, inclining to olive, each feather margined with pale rust; the quills are brown; the fore part of the neck is surrounded by a broad band of a light olive, bordered on the under side with white; the breast is pale dull orange; middle of the belly black; the rest of the belly, thighs, and vent reddish white; the tail is olive brown, black near the end, and tipped with white, the outer feathers are margined with white: legs dark olive.

The Dotterel is common in various parts of Great Britain, though in some places it is scarcely known.

They are supposed to breed in the mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland, where they are sometimes seen in the month of May; they likewise breed on several of the Highland hills: they are very common in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Derbyshire, appearing in small flocks on the heaths and moors of those counties during the months of May and June, and are then very fat, and much esteemed for the table.

RING PLOVER, OR SEA LARK.

(Charadrius Hiaticula, Linn.-Le petit Pluvier, à collier, Buff.)

THE length is rather more than seven inches. Bill orange, tipped with black; eyes dark hazel; a black line passes from the bill, underneath each eye, and spreads over the cheeks; above this a line of white extends across the forehead to the eyes; this is bounded above by a black fillet across the head; a gorget of black encircles the neck, very broad before, but growing narrow behind, above which, to the chin, is white; the top of the head is a light brown ash, as are also the back, scapulars, and coverts; the greater coverts are tipped with white; breast and all the under parts white; quills dusky, with an oval white spot about the middle of each feather, which forms, when the wings are closed,

a stroke of white down each; the tail dark brown, tipped with white, the two outer feathers almost white: legs orange; claws black. In the female, the white on the forehead is less; there is more white on the wings, and the plumage inclines more to ash. They appear in the same plumage in Greenland.*

These birds are common in all the northern countries; they migrate into Britain in the spring, and depart in autumn: they frequent the sea-shores during summer, and run nimbly along the sands, sometimes taking short flights, accompanied with loud twitterings, then alight and run again: if disturbed they fly quite off. They make no nest: the female lays four eggs, of a pale ash, spotted with black, which she deposits on the ground.

* Capt. Sabine in his memoir of the birds of Greenland, states that specimens of this bird were shot at Hare Island, in the month of June, perfectly agreeing with Montagu's description of British specimens, and consequently disproving Pennant's assertion that the black collar becomes fainter in North America from climate. Montagu saw several specimens in which the collar was extinct in Eng. land.

THE KENTISH PLOVER.

(Charadrius Cantianus, Lath. Ind. Ornith. Sup.)

THE following is Latham's description of this bird. "Size of the Ringed Plover: length six inches and a half; breadth fifteen inches; weight an ounce and a half: the bill is black; the top of the head ferruginous brown, bounded on the fore part with black, but the forehead is white, which passes over the eye, and a little beyond it from the bill through the eye a black streak, broadening behind the eye and reaching over the ear; all beneath, from the chin to the vent white, passing round the neck as a collar: on each side the breast, next to the shoulder of the wing, is a black patch; back and wings pale brown: quills dusky; the shaft of the outer one the whole of the length, and the middle of the next white: the greater coverts for the most part tipped with white; tail rounded in shape, not unlike the quills: the three outer feathers white, except a dusky spot on the inner web of the outermost but two; the others have the basis very pale half way, but the two middle ones are of one colour."

Montagu is inclined to consider this and the bird termed the Alexandrine Plover, varieties of the Ringed Plover. We have thought it due to these distinguished writers to notice the subject here, but our own experience affords us no means of questioning or confirming the accuracy of their observations.