Ringed Plover - 1894

Aegialitis hiaticula

A common resident on the coast; large flocks arrive in the autumn.

This pretty bird nests commonly at many places on the coast. Mr. Tracy gives the following interesting particulars of a nest : " A pair of these birds nested on a rabbit warren on a high exposed piece of ground (we think we know this spot at Stackpole). I took the eggs from the nest, and in a week the female had laid her four eggs again within a few yards of the former ones. These I again took, and in thirteen days four more eggs were laid very near the last nest, but these were decidedly much smaller than the former ones.

On visiting the place about three weeks afterwards I again found a nest containing four eggs, but these were a great deal smaller, and had almost lost their character, as they were nearly round, and not pointed at the end, like the true type of Plover's eggs. One, which I suspect to have been the last laid, was not larger than a Robin's egg, and quite round, clearly showing the female bird had completely exhausted herself in her efforts to increase and multiply. I have no doubt of their being the same pair, as there were no others seen near the place."

Mathew M.A. 1894, Birds of Pembrokeshire and it's Islands