The Little Ringed Plover — Ægialitis Curonica (J. F. Gmelin)
This species breeds in Scandinavia and throughout Europe, being rather scarcer in the west. To our shores it is only a very occasional straggler, not more than half-a-dozen authenticated instances being known.
It resembles the preceding species, but is rather smaller in size, paler in colour, and the bill is narrower, longer in proportion, and wholly black. The best characteristic, however, is that the shafts of all the primaries, except the outer ones, are dusky, whereas in the Ringed Plover they are all flecked with white to form a conspicuous bar when the wing is opened. Length 6·5 in.; wing 4·5 in.