C. hiaticula, Lin. &c. C. torguatus, Leach. Ringed Plover or Ringed Dottrel, Prow. Sea Lark, Sand Lark, orDulwilly. Grey-brown above, white beneath ; breast black ; forehead dusky, with a white stripe ; crown of the head brown ; bill red, with the tip black ; feet yellow. The full grown male is nearly of the size of the common lark, measuring about nine inches six lines in length, and eleven inches in alar extent, and weighing, on an average, two ounces.
The ringed plover is very generally diffused over the known world, having been observed even in New South Wales; and it enlivens the sea-shores with its hopping movements and loud twitterings, skipping nimbly along the sands, and taking short flights, and then alighting and running again; but, if disturbed, it flies quite off. That some of them may quit this country in autumn is not im probable, and has been asserted on respectable authority ; but Montagu has repeatedly found some of them during our severest winters. They feed chiefly on marine in sects, and worms that live in the sand ; and when a flock of them has been making a repast, the sand is perforated with numerous small holes. They pair early in May, and
the female makes no regular nest, but scratches a small cavity in the sand, just above high water mark, laying from three to five, but generally four eggs, of a einereous brown, marked all over with small black and ash-coloured spots, and which may be overlooked by a careless observer as small pebbles. The mother is much attached to her little ones, and has recourse to various stratagems to save them from men and dogs, sometimes fluttering along the ground, as if lamed, and, if pursued, flying to a small distance, or seeming to tumble head over heels repeatedly, till it has enticed the enemy from the objects of its care, and then it flies off. In autumn these birds become gregarious, and continue to associate in small flocks all winter, mingling occasionally with purres and dunlins. According to the observations of Montagu, there are two or three varieties, or modifications, of the present species, among which he ranks C. .11exandrinus of Latham, and C. Cantianus of Lewin.