MAIGIALOPHILUS CA NTIANUS.
Kentish Plover.

Charadrius cantianus, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. Ixvi.

albifrons, Meyer, Taschenb. deutsch. Vog., tom. ii. p. 323.

littoralis, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl., tom. iy. p. 430, tab. 23. figs. 1 & 2.
Alewandrinus, Hasselq. Reise, p. 213.

Aigialitis cantianus, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 558.

——— albifrons, Brehm, Vég. Deutschl., pe goles

———— albigularis, Brehm, ibid., p. 553.

 

 

““Turs little Plover,” says Yarrell, in his ‘ British Birds,’ ‘ was first described and named by Dr. Latham
in the ninth volume of his ‘ General History of Birds,’ p- 328, from specimens sent him by Dr. Boys, which
had been killed at Sandwich, in Kent, in the years 1787 and 1791, in which locality the species has several
times been obtained. In May 1830 Mr. George Clayton, of Rochester, found it in pairs at Pegwell Bay and
on the Sandwich flats : it has also been met with on the shelly bank, towards Sandhurst Castle and Deal,
whence I have seen specimens. The Ringed Plover is common in the same localities ; but the Kentish
Plovers may be readily distinguished when on the ground by their smaller size. Though they mix together
when feeding, Mr. Clayton says the two species do not fly in company.” ‘The egg,” Mr. Yarrell states,
‘‘is correctly figured by Mr. Hewitson, in his well known work the ‘Eggs of British Birds.’ I possess
two eggs of this species, given me by Dr. Pitman, obtained with others on the Sussex coast ; these are one
inch and three lines in length by eleven lines in breadth, of a yellowish stone-colour, spotted and streaked
with black.”

The above is probably the earliest record of this interesting species ; and I have considered it only just
to the late Mr. Yarrell to repeat the information he has given to the world.

Mr. Stevenson, in his ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ after recapitulating some of the instances of its occurrence as
stated by Yarrell, Mr. Clarke, of Saffron Walden, the late Mr. Hoy, and Mr. J. H. Gurney, proceeds to say :—
“T have not bad the opportunity of examining specimens of this bird in the flesh; but Mr. Gould describes
the bill and legs as hard and black, whilst the same parts in the Ringed Plover are pulpy and yellow ; and
in all plumages the former may be recognized by the white of the breast extending upwards to the chin
without any interruption, which is not the case with the Ringed Plover.”

I am somewhat surprised that Mr. Stevenson has never had fresh Norfolk examples of this bird, since from
1828 until within the last few years I have been in the habit of receiving specimens along with other shore-
birds direct from Yarmouth, where I know they had been killed by the gunners who eke out a living by
shooting birds for the London collectors.

If we compare the Kentish Plover with the Ringed Plover (or the Ringed Dottrel, as it is more frequently
called), we find certain structural differences which, although they may be slight, doubtless have some influence
over their habits and economies. On this head I may repeat bere what I said in my ‘ Handbook to the
Birds of Australia,’ published in 1865 :—* In accordance with the spirit of minute subdivision, which now
pervades all branches of natural science, [ have for a long time considered that the small Plovers hitherto
comprised in the genus Aevalites, of which the 4. hiaticula is the type, required a further subdivision ; I
therefore propose the term above given (Aezalophilus) for the A2. cantianus of Europe, and to associate with
it the 4. ruficapillus of Australia. There are many other species of this form, all or nearly all of which
have black bills and long legs, and are less banded with black on the under surface than the members of the
genus Aeialites. They have a different note, are nimble of foot, and affect situations bordering the open sea.”

The Kentish Plovers have longer legs and shorter toes, which are black and hard, instead of the
former being pulpy and the latter yellow as in the Ringed Plovers ; their eyes also are larger when compared
with the size of the body. The situations the two birds affect when they come to us to breed are also
very different, the Ringed Plovers dispersing themselves over shingly beds and sides of rivers, while the
Kentish Plover keeps to the sea-shore, and deposits its eggs above high-water mark and out of the reach
of the spray. Those who bave seen the two birds alive in their native haunts cannot have failed to
observe the difference of sites chosen by the two birds. The note of the Kentish Plover also is markedly
different from the plaintive pipe of the Ringed Plovers, being more harsh and ees If they have not
all been ruthlessly destroyed since the month of June, 1846, the reader may go to the little town of Lydd,
on the coast of Kent, and thence to the shingles, and observe for himself both the species above mentioned.