L I T T L E R I N G E D P L O V E R
/Egialitis curonica, (ƒ . P. Gmelin).
LITTLE RINGED PLOVER.
MGIAL1TIS CURONICA (J. F. Gmelin).
Charadrius curonicus, J. F. Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 692
; : (1788), '
Charadrius minor, Naum. vii. p. 225, xiii. p. 229; Macg. iv.
p. 128; Hewitson, i. p. 299.
JEgialitis curonica, Yarr. ed. 4, iii. p. 262; Dresser, vii.
p . 491.
Petit Pluvier a collier, French ; Fluss-Regenpfeiffer,
German; Frailecillo, Andarios chico, Spanish.
This bird is a singularly rare visitor to England,
although common in many parts of the continent of
Europe and a regular summer migrant to the northeastern
portions thereof. I have met with this Plover
on various parts of the shores of the Mediterranean, and
found it breeding in scattered pairs on the uncultivated
wastes of New Castile in the neighbourhood of Aranjuez.
Except in the matter of its preference for the sandy
banks of freshwater lakes, ponds, and streams, to the
sea-shore, this species differs but little in habits from
the common Ringed Plover, but it is considerably
smaller, and proportionately much more slenderly built
than that bird. The eggs of the present species, found
by us in Spain, were laid in slight depressions of the