L I T T L E RING- DOTTB.ELL.
Charadrius minor, Meyer.
Le Petit Pluvier k collier.
W e are indebted to our friend Mr. Henry Doubleday, o f Epping, for the loan o f an example o f this elegant
little Plover, which he informs us was taken at Shoreham in Sussex. From the extreme youth o f the
specimen transmitted to us, it is clear that it must have been bred on the spot; and it is worthy o f notice that
the person who killed it affirms that he has long suspected the present bird to be a resident on that part of
the coast, from having remarked that he could always perceive a difference in the note o f this bird from that
o f either o f the other species. Whether this Plover habitually resorts to our shores or not, it may now
reasonably claim a place in the Fauna o f our island; and we are glad o f the opportunity o f introducing it to
the notice o f British ornithologists, and still more so that the only British-killed specimen should have fallen
into the hands o f an individual so zealous in the collection o f our native birds as the gentleman above
mentioned. On the Continent it is by no means a scarce bird; we learn from the Manuel o f M. Temminck that
it is abundant in the South o f Germany as far as Italy, and that it is occasionally found as a bird o f passage in
Holland, ever giving the preference to the borders o f large rivers rather than the shores o f the sea. We have
compared it with American specimens, and can attest that they are specifically different.
Its general habits, manners, and mode o f life are strictly in accordance with the Common Ring-Dottrell;
like that species it constructs its nest on the sand and shingles which border the water’s edge. The eggs are
four or five in number, o f a yellowish white colour, marked with blotches o f black and brown.
The adults o f both sexes are nearly alike in plumage; the young, on the contrary, do not acquire the collar
and black markings until the second year. From the Common Ring-Dottrell, the only bird in Europe with
which it could be confounded, it differs in being much smaller in size, in having the beak entirely black and
comparatively small, and in the fleshy colouring o f the tarsi.
The adults have the bill black, a band o f the same colour passing from the bill to the eye, and extending
over the ear-coverts; the forehead pure white, above which on the crown a black band passes from eye to
e y e ; the occiput grey, beneath which a white circle spreads from the throat round the neck; this is succeeded
by a black band, broad on the chest, but narrowing until it meets at the back o f the neck; the whole o f the
upper plumage, with the exception o f the rump, which is white, o f a fine brownish grey; under surface white;
feet and legs flesh colour; irides hazel.
The young entirely want the black collar and facial markings, the crown o f the head and face being
brownish g re y ; in every other respect they resemble the adults, except that a brownish tint pervades the
whole o f the upper plumage and that every feather is edged with a lighter margin.
The Plate represents an adult, and a young bird o f the first autumn, o f the natural size.