Part 50

Winter.--In the British Isles the wintering birds are to be met with in flocks on most of our larger estuaries. When on the wing they sometimes associate with dunlin and also occasionally with redshanks.

DISTRIBUTION

Breeding range.--In the Old World, commonly in the British Isles and sparingly in the Faroes and Iceland; also probably on Bear Island and a few pairs in Spitsbergen as well as on Waigatz, Kolguev, and Nova Zembla. On the European Continent, from the Arctic Ocean south to the Mediterranean, chiefly on the seacoasts, and only locally by lakes and rivers. In the Mediterranean it is local on some of the islands and nowhere plentiful. The north Asiatic race has been separated, while in the New World its breeding range includes both coasts of Greenland and perhaps the east coast of Baffin Land, unless the last statement is due to confusion with the semipalmated plover.

Winter range.--Many remain in the British Isles through the winter, but birds from northern Europe migrate to the Mediterranean region and Africa, where they have been recorded as far south as Cape Province and Natal, the majority wintering south of the Sahara. The Atlantic Isles (Canaries, Madeira, and Azores) are visited on passage, and Asiatic birds have been recorded from the Indo-Malayan archipelago and even Australia, though some doubt has been cast on this.

Spring migration.--The principal passage at Gibraltar takes place in March, the latest birds leaving in April. From about mid March to mid April old birds are on passage northward and the breeding ground in Norway is reached in April, and in Sweden from late March onward.

Fall migration.--In northern Europe (Norway and Sweden) the southward movement takes place in September and at the Straits of Gibraltar the passage lasts from September to November. At Heligoland young birds begin to pass as early as the end of June and the beginning of July.

Casual records.--In Jan Mayen it apparently occurs in some numbers, but is not known to breed. Barbados, one, Chancery Lane, September 10. Gould’s record of one from Port Stevens, Australia, is a somewhat questionable one. One obtained at Sultanpur, south of Delhi, November, 1878; another at Gilgit, October, 1879. (These records must refer to the Siberian race, as also probably the Chilean occurrence and that from Sitka, Alaska.)

Egg dates.--In northeast Greenland Manniche found eggs from June 17 to July 18, while in Nova Zembla the young were recently hatched at the beginning of August and eggs probably laid late in June or early in July. In the British Isles eggs have been met with in March, but most eggs are laid from the end of April onward. April 16 to 30 (5 dates), May 1 to 14 (10 dates), May 15 to 31 (21 dates), June 1 to 30 (23 dates), July 1 to 30 (7 dates).

CHARADRIUS DUBIUS CURONICUS Gmelin

LITTLE RINGED PLOVER

Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain

HABITS

The little ringed plover owes its place in the American list to a casual occurrence at Kodiak Island, Alaska. It is noteworthy that in J. F. von Brandt’s paper in the Journal für Ornithologie, 1891, the Alaskan specimen is recorded as “Charadrius alexandrinus Pall.” There is also a specimen in the United States National Museum (No. 39523) which is said to have been taken at San Francisco, but some doubt appertains to the latter record.

Spring.--The range of this species does not extend far to the north in western Europe and it is only a rare straggler to the British Isles. In northern Germany it appears in fair numbers on the larger rivers and at lakesides, about the middle of March, but except in southern Sweden few cross the Baltic to breed.

Courtship.--H. F. Witherby (1919) has some interesting notes on this species which was breeding in company with the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) near Dunkerque, in northern France.

On April 28 the little ringed plovers were flying round after each other, with a beautiful slow, long, flap of the wings, much like the flight of a large butterfly and uttering a pleasing little song. This was evidently a “courtship” action and we found many “scoops” in the sand, but no eggs.

Liebe describes the song flight as beginning with a zigzag oblique ascent, followed by short horizontal flights at various angles over the gravelly bed where the hen is sitting, uttering meantime his musical whistle, which is answered by the bird beneath, and ending in a sharp descent in a curve toward the water’s edge and thence with low, skimming flight to the hen. The little ring plover is a much more demonstrative and noisy species than the ringed plover and when its breeding haunts are approached instead of running off with a low whistle and then flying a short distance ahead, it flies round and round the intruder with loud repeated whistling notes. Naumann (1887) expresses the pairing song by the words “duh, du dull lull lullullul,” taken in slow time and ending with a wonderful trill only to be heard on the breeding ground.

Nesting.--Continental writers lay much stress on the fact that this bird by preference always makes the nest in gravelly patches rather than in sand. This is not invariably the case, as the bird builds freely on sand banks in rivers where there is no shingle or gravel, and at times also on dry mud. It may be found nesting far inland, but nearly always in the neighborhood of water and shows a decided preference for the shores of fresh-water lakes and the larger rivers rather than the seashore.

Eggs.--The normal clutch is four, though three is not an uncommon number, and generally they are readily distinguishable from those of the other sand plovers. They are more pyriform in shape than those of the Kentish plover, and average less in size than either of the two other common European species. In color the ground color is often grayish when fresh but dries out to a yellowish stone or pale reddish ocherous, with many fine streaks and spots of dark brown and numerous small ashy streaks or spots. On the whole the markings are paler and scantier than with the Kentish plover, but in rare cases large blotches of rich brown and ash colors are found in some sets, and others show an approach to the normal type of Kentish plover. The eggs are laid in a mere hollow without lining in the gravel. The measurements of 100 eggs (68 by the writer and 32 by Rey) average 29.8 by 22.08 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =32.8= by 23, 30.1 by =23.5=, =27.3= by 21.1, and 28.6 by =21= millimeters.

Young.--Incubation is said by Naumann (1887) to be apparently performed by both sexes, but in warm and sunny weather the eggs are left for long periods uncovered. The period is over 22 days, probably 23 or 24 (not 16 or 17 as erroneously given by Naumann). Only one brood is reared in the season as a rule, but some dates are extremely late and point to an occasional second brood.

Plumages.--The plumages and molts are fully described in A Practical Handbook of British Birds, edited by H. F. Witherby (1920).

Food.--Definite records are scanty, but it is evident that the main food consists of insects, including the smaller Coleoptera and their larvae; Diptera and larvae; Neuroptera (Phryganeidae or caddis flies and larvae). Naumann also found a small worm in one case in the stomach.

Behavior.--Witherby (1919) writes:

The little ringed plover is even more demonstrative than the Kentish and it is shyer and more difficult to mark onto its nest or young. Both species have a very plaintive alarm note which they utter constantly as they fly round the intruder, but the Kentish is less fussy and less noisy than the little ringed. When one is near the young both species go through various outcries, such as running along the ground crouching low with head stretched out, lying on the side with one wing up, the legs stretched out and the tail spread, or with the breast on the ground and both wings half spread, but the performance of the Kentish is much less abandoned than that of the little ringed.

P. W. Munn (1921) also writes:

The behavior of the birds at their nest is totally different from Kentish plovers, which are not demonstrative whilst they have eggs; but the little ringed plover flies wildly round and round, twisting and doubling and uttering its wild whistle, or else runs frantically about on the ground, whistling plaintively.

Enemies.--The eggs are occasionally taken by Corvidae, and the birds themselves sometimes fall victims to Accipitres.

DISTRIBUTION