Part 2 — Family CHARADRIIDAE, Plovers (continued 3)

Young.—The incubation period according to the observations of J. A. Spurrell (1917) is from 24 to 25 days; according to Ira N. Gabrielson (1922) it is 25 days. J. M. Bates (1916) found it to be 26 days and Althea E. Sherman (1916) found that 28 days elapsed between the laying of the last egg and hatching.

Both sexes incubate (F. L. Burns, 1915), and both take care of the young. Robert B. Rockwell (1912) relates the following:

“Mr. [L. J.] Hersey was fortunate enough to see one set of eggs hatch. He says the parent birds carried every bit of shell away from the nest within two hours after the hatching.” As soon as the moisture has dried from the down, the young are on their feet and leave the nest and the parents often lead them to the nearest water. They bob and call at an early age. Althea R. Sherman (1916) had watched a nest very closely from the beginning, but she says of the young: “So protective was their coloration, so adroit was parental management that they were not seen after leaving the nest until they had attained the size of adult house sparrows.” The young often escape notice by lying motionless on the ground. At such times they may sometimes be picked up without showing signs of life.

Both parents play the usual wounded-bird act to beguile the intruder from the eggs or young. The following detailed account by Ira N. Gabrielson (1922) is worth giving here:

It is impossible to approach the nest on foot without alarming one or other of the birds, as one was always on guard some distance away. At the appearance of a person walking, the one on guard would fly in a circle about the nest, giving the alarm, at the first note of which the one on the nest ran rapidly until some distance away and then took wing to join its mate in circling about the intruder. A man ploughing corn was viewed with absolute indifference by both birds, the team often passing down the row next to the nest without disturbing the sitting bird. At an alarm, however, both birds flew about the field unless the intruder persisted in approaching the nest. In such a case one of the birds dropped to the ground near the person, invariably on the side away from the nest, and fluttered about apparently in the greatest distress. The attitude most frequently assumed was as follows: one wing was held extended over the back, the other beat wildly in the dust, the tail feathers were spread and the bird lay flat on the ground, constantly giving a wild alarm note. This performance continued until the observer came very near when the bird would rise and run along the ground in a normal manner or at most with one wing dragging slightly as long as pursuit was continued. If the observer turned back toward the nest, however, these actions were immediately repeated. When the parents had succeeded in luring the intruder about 100 yards, they seemed satisfied as they then flew away.

M. P. Skinner found that when he scared one bird from the nest, the mate was apt to steal around behind him and take its place on the nest. He says that

In addition to their broken-wing tactics, both of the killdeer at times would pretend to brood anywhere on the foundation, evidently to lead me to think that that was where their nest was. * * * On one occasion I found an adult with one young about four days old. The youngster ran under the old one and into its feathers; then the old bird squatted down, covering it. Just then I saw the other bird come running and exchange with the first parent, nestling down over the youngster.

While the broken wing tactics are used by the birds for man, dogs, and other predatory animals, in order to draw them away from the eggs or young, quite different tactics are used for browsing animals that might step on them. Thus Howard Lacey (1911) noticed that a flock of driven goats divided. “I walked up to the place expecting to find a rattlesnake, and found instead a killdeer standing over her eggs with upspread wings and scolding vigorously.” Norman Criddle (1908) writes “If the danger came from a cow or horse, the tactics were changed and the birds with both wings and feathers spread out would run into the animal’s face, and so by startling it drive the intruder away.” This habit of scaring away a browsing animal probably accounts for the following experiences related by M. P. Skinner. The change to the broken-wing tactics appears to show great discernment and intelligence on the part of the bird.

Twice when riding near two different unsuspected nests, the birds got up with startled cries and faced me with their tails spread horizontally and quivering, although I was on horseback and towered high above them. After a few moments they made off with pretended broken wings, limping, falling down and fluttering.

Aretas A. Saunders (1926) observed a parent very zealous in the care of its young:

This brood of young was accompanied by a parent. They occupied a certain section of the shore of the pond, where the young hid beneath the rushes when danger approached, and ran over the mud flats at other times. The parent remained near, and drove all other birds from the vicinity. While shore birds and marsh birds were abundant all around the Mill Pond, at this point they kept away because of the parent killdeer. The parent was extremely belligerent, and I watched it attack other killdeers, yellowlegs, spotted sandpipers, soras, and song sparrows that happened to wander in the vicinity. All birds seemed glad to leave the vicinity.

Plumages.—[Author’s note: The most distinctive feature of the downy young killdeer is the long, downy tail, black above and elsewhere barred with “pinkish buff” and black, with long, hair-like, buffy down below protruding beyond the rest of the tail; the forehead, chin, throat, a ring around the neck and the under parts are pure white, except for a tinge of pinkish buff in the center of the forehead; a broad, black stripe above the forehead extends around the crown to the occiput; a black stripe extends from the lores, below the eyes to the occiput; there is a broad black stripe entirely around the neck, below the white; the crown, auriculars, back and inner half of the wings are grizzled “vinaceous buff” and dusky; there is a black space in the center of the back and a black band across the wing between the grizzled inner half and the white distal half.

The juvenal plumage is similar to that of the adult, but the head markings are less distinct; the feathers of the nape are tipped with “amber brown” and those of the back, scapulars, wing coverts and tertials are more or less broadly tipped or edged with the same, more broadly on the scapulars and wing coverts and more narrowly on the upper back and tertials; the intermediate white band on the breast is always more or less suffused with brownish.

The postjuvenal molt is apparently very limited and the first winter plumage is largely the juvenal plumage modified by wear. It is much like the adult except for the worn and faded edgings of the wing coverts, and some of the scapulars and tertials and the tail, which are retained. At the first prenuptial molt, which may take place from February to June, the plumage becomes practically adult.

Adults have a complete postnuptial molt, mainly in August and September, and a partial prenuptial molt of the body plumage in early spring. Nuptial and winter plumages are practically alike.]

Food.—The killdeer is man’s friend. It consumes great quantities of insect pests. The most complete study of its food by examination of stomachs has been made by W. L. McAtee (1912) who sums up as follows:

“In all 97.72 per cent of the killdeer’s food is composed of insects and other animal matter. The bird preys upon many of the worst crop pests and is a valuable economic factor.” Of this large proportion he finds that beetles constitute 37.06 per cent; other insects—grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, bugs, caddis flies, dragon flies, and two-winged flies, 39.54 per cent; other invertebrates—centipedes, spiders, ticks, oyster worms, earthworms, snails, crabs, crawfish, and other crustaceans, 21.12 per cent. The 2.28 per cent of vegetable matter is chiefly made up of weed seeds such as button weed, smart weed, foxtail grass, and nightshade. He found that various kinds of weevils were eaten such as those of alfalfa, cotton boll, clover, rice, white pine, etc. In a single stomach he counted 41 alfalfa weevils.

Harold C. Bryant (1914a), during an outbreak of grasshoppers in California, found that the contents of one stomach was 100 per cent grasshoppers, and he estimated that each killdeer averaged 33 grasshoppers daily. Arthur H. Howell (1906) has found that the killdeer is among the most important of the birds that eat the cotton-boll weevil. Samuel Aughey (1878) found 258 locusts and 190 other insects in the stomachs of nine birds taken in Nebraska. E. R. Kalmbach (1914) found in the stomach of a killdeer taken in a western alfalfa field 316 weevils; in another 383. C. W. Nash (1909) has found the stomachs of killdeers taken in orchards completely filled with weevils. E. R. Kalmbach (1914) has also found May beetles both in adult and grub form in the stomachs, wireworms, and insects that attack sugar cane, corn, carrots, grape vine, sweet potato, tobacco, and sugar beets. Caterpillars, he found to be a favorite article of diet, also grasshoppers and crickets, crane flies and their larvae. One stomach contained hundreds of larvae of the salt marsh mosquito. He adds:

The killdeer thus befriends man, but it does something also for the domestic animals, not only by eating horseflies and mosquitoes, as just mentioned, but also by preying on ticks, including the American fever or cattle tick, which has caused such enormous losses in some parts of the South.

Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says: “This species is very partial to fields which are being ploughed, and at this time they are always very tame, following each furrow as soon as it is turned over in order to secure the worms which are exposed.” I have watched a killdeer in a ploughed field swallowing a large earthworm. Several strenuous gulps were needed before the act was accomplished.

Behavior.—The interesting behavior of this bird during courtship and in the care of the eggs and young has already been detailed under the appropriate headings. In general it may be said that the killdeer has the usual plover habits when feeding of alternately running and then of standing still, as if to listen or look, always with head up, and of dabbing suddenly at the ground for its food. Like some other species of plover, it occasionally bobs or “teeters” in a nervous manner. This varies from a slight bob of the head, which is first hitched up and then brought down, to a bob combined with a tilting up and down of the whole body on the hips. In swift running they excel, and this serves them to good purpose in the pursuit of insects.

M. P. Skinner writes: “When they get out on bare ground their speed is really astonishing. I have had them run along the road ahead of my horse for quite a distance.” In plover fashion and unlike sandpipers, the killdeer in feeding does not keep in a compact flock but spreads out irregularly. John F. Ferry (1908) writes: “A curious sight was that of numbers of these birds scattered about the lawns at Leland Stanford University while the sprinklers were in operation. This recalled the robins on the lawns of the Eastern States.”

Sometimes a number fairly close together may be found crouching on the sand or gravel asleep, or they may sleep standing, often on one foot. One or more are awake, however, watching, all from time to time open their eyes and look about. Notwithstanding their striking coloration, one may walk almost to a flock under these circumstances without noticing them. The “ruptive” marks about the head and neck break the continuity of the surface and the bird is not recognized as such.

The flight of the killdeer is rapid, generally close to the ground when the bird is on the lookout for food, but at other times, especially in courtship, as stated above, the flight may be at a great height. They usually fly about singly in a wavering and erratic manner, but sometimes in considerable flocks. Widely scattered birds when startled usually unite into a compact flock and fly away together. W. L. Dawson (1923) says: “I have seen flocks of 50 killdeers bunch closely and turn in silence and disappear in perfect order.”

Whenever the killdeer is unmolested, as is the case now under protection, it becomes very tame, as is shown above in the account of the birds at Stanford University. N. S. Goss (1891) writes:

“In Coatapec, Mexico, a pair came daily to feed and dress up their feathers beside a little run or gutter in the center of the narrow paved street opposite my room in the hotel, regardless of the people on the sidewalks, only running or dodging to avoid a person crossing or to keep out of the way of a pack of mules, etc.”

Voice.—The killdeer is at times the noisiest of birds and is hated by the gunner, for its alarm cries disturb every bird within a long range. The “song” has been described under courtship. F. M. Chapman (1912) well characterizes some of its cries as “half-plaintive, half-petulant.” Kill-deé kill-deé is the common cry from which it takes its name, for it omits the r at the end. But it has a great variety of other cries with which it rends the air, and I find in my notes the following: kee-kee; eet-eet-eet; kee-ah, kee-ah; dee-dee-dee; tsee-he, tsee-he; tso-he, tso-he; ker, ker, ker, and piercing tee-ars. It is, of course difficult to express these cries properly on paper, and a great variety of syllables have been recorded by different writers.

Aretas A. Saunders (1926) gives the following excellent description:

The calls are mainly of three sorts. The first is the common call heard when one approaches one or more birds, or the vicinity of a nest: dee dee dee dee-ee kildee dee-ee, etc., the notes usually slurred slightly upward at the end, at least the longer ones. A second call is the long trilled t-rrrrrrrrrrrrrr, often heard when the nest or young are threatened, and when the birds are fighting or displaying. The third call is one from which the bird evidently has derived its name. It is usually indulged by birds flying about in the air in loose flocks, particularly early in the morning or toward evening. A number of observers or writers on the notes of this species seem not to have separated this call from the first one. It differs always by the fact that the notes slur downward, instead of upward, on the end. I should write it kildeeah kildeeah kildeeah, at least in those forms where the first note is lower in pitch than the second. It is often rendered, however, when the first note is highest in pitch, when it sounds more like keedeeah keedeeah.

The name chewekee by which it has long been known on the Carolina coast, according to Arthur T. Wayne, is probably descriptive of its cries.

Field marks.—The killdeer is a marked bird in the field, both on account of its plumage and on account of its voice. Its plover ways, its long straw-colored legs, its long tail with buff-colored upper coverts and rump and the two black bars on the breast are all good field marks. It can not be mistaken for any other bird if these points are borne in mind.

Fall.—The fall, for the same reason as the spring migration, is not as marked with the killdeer as with our other shore birds. William Rowan (1926), writing of Alberta, says: “The latest killdeers have been noted in the fall weeks after the freeze-up.” Dr. Arthur P. Chadbourne (1889) recorded a memorable reverse flight of killdeer in fall on the Atlantic coast, due to the great November storm of 1888, which distributed them within a mile or two of the coast as far north as Cape Sable, Nova Scotia.

Game.—Fortunately the killdeer is now on the protected list from which it should never be removed, for it is too valuable and attractive a bird to be shot for sport. Before this protection occurred, the birds, as we have seen, were almost exterminated in some parts of the country. In other parts, luckily, they seem to have come under the protection of food prejudice. Thus W. L. Dawson (1909), writing of the birds of Washington State, says, “Fortunately for them, the flesh of the killdeer is not esteemed for food by humans, so they are allowed to gather in peace in full companies.”

Enemies.—Besides man, now happily pacified, the killdeer has little to fear in the way of enemies besides a few of the larger hawks and owls. H. H. Kopman (1905) relates a curious case where he found a killdeer caught by the leg at a crayfish hole, with one toe already eaten off. He released the bird and cared for the wound. The bird was able to stand and to fly away the next morning.

Winter.—It is a pleasure to have this bird wintering throughout the southern parts of our country. B. W. Williams (1919), writing of these birds wintering in Florida, says: “They mingled freely with other shore birds on the beach, mud flats, and oyster beds.” M. P. Skinner, of the birds observed at Pinehurst, says: “All through the winter, the killdeer seemed to be roughly paired. They might separate two or three hundred feet while feeding, but they always came together again soon, and any intruders were promptly chased off. The first actual mating that I saw was on January 28, 1927.”

With enlightened public opinion, a knowledge of the beneficial character of this fine bird and its perpetual protection, there seems to be every prospect that the killdeer will always remain a joy to nature lovers and an aid to farmers.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—North and Central America, casual in South America and the British Isles.

Breeding range.—The killdeer breeds north to probably Mackenzie (Fort Resolution); Alberta (Fort Chipewyan); Saskatchewan (Buffalo Lake and Churchill River); Manitoba (probably Fort Churchill); Ontario (probably Moose Factory and Ottawa); and Quebec (Montreal, Godbout, and Magdalen Islands). East to Quebec (Magdalen Islands); Maine (Bangor and Saco); New Hampshire (Portsmouth); Massachusetts (Harvard, Cape Cod, and Chatham); Connecticut (West Haven); New York (Plum Island, New York City, and Staten Island); New Jersey (Red Bank and Sea Isle City); Delaware (Lincoln); Maryland (Cambridge); North Carolina (Pea Island and Fort Macon); South Carolina (Ladys Island and formerly Frogmore); Georgia (Savannah and St. Simons Island); eastern Florida (Gainesville, Fruitland Park, Indian River, and Kissimmee); and the northern Bahama Islands (Little Abaco and New Providence). South to the northern Bahama Islands (New Providence); the west coast of Florida (Tarpon Springs, and probably James Island); Alabama (Leighton and Greensboro); Louisiana (State Game Preserve and Mermenton); Texas (Houston, Brownsville, Hidalgo, Eagle Pass, and Fort Hancock); Durango (Sestin); Chihuahua (Pachico and San Diego); and Lower California (Cape San Lucas). West to Lower California (Cape San Lucas, Victoria Mountains, San Quentin Bay, and Volcano Lake); California, (Poway Valley, Escondido, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, probably Cahto, and Fort Crook); Oregon (Tule Lake, Link River, Fort Klamath, Bandon, Dayton, and Portland); Washington (Yakima, Fort Steilacoom, Tacoma, and probably Lake Chelan); British Columbia (Okanagan Landing and Cariboo District); and probably Mackenzie (Fort Resolution).

There also is a somewhat questionable breeding record for the killdeer in Yucatan (Sisal). The breeding range in the northeastern United States became greatly restricted when this region was extensively developed, but the birds now seem to be increasing in numbers in this area.

Winter range.—The winter range of the killdeer extends north to British Columbia (Chilliwack and probably Okanagan Lake); Utah (Antelope Island and Provo); Colorado (Mesa County, Boulder, and Denver); rarely Kansas (Harper and Onaga); rarely Iowa (Wall Lake and Grinnell); Illinois (Knoxville, La Grange, and Chicago); rarely Indiana (Vincennes, Bicknell, La Fayette, and Indianapolis); rarely Ohio (Hillsboro, probably Oberlin and Salem); and rarely Massachusetts (Marblehead). East to rarely Massachusetts (Marblehead, Boston, and Monomoy Island); rarely Connecticut (Jewett City, Meriden, and North Haven); rarely New York (Long Island and New York City); New Jersey (Atlantic City and Five-mile Beach); District of Columbia (Washington); Maryland (Cambridge); Virginia (Broadwater, James River, and Back Bay); North Carolina (Pea Island and Ocracoke); South Carolina (Waverly Mills, Mount Pleasant, and Frogmore); Georgia (Savannah, Blackbeard Island, Darien, and St. Marys); Florida (Amelia Island, St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, Titusville, and Upper Matecumbe Key); the Bahama Islands (Nassau, Cat Island, Watling Island, and Acklin Island); Haiti (Monte Christi, Sanchez, Samana, and El Valle); and Porto Rico (San Juan). South to Porto Rico (San Juan, Caguas, and Mayaguez); rarely Panama (Davila); and Costa Rica (mouth of the Diquis, San Jose, and Miravalles). West to Costa Rica (Miravalles); Guatemala (Atitlan and Coban); Jalisco (Ocotlan); Sinaloa (Mazatlan); Lower California (San Jose del Cabo, La Paz, San Quentin, and the Colorado River delta); California (Escondido, Los Angeles, San Fernando, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Napa); Oregon (Corvallis, Rickreall, and Netarts Bay); Washington (Camas, Tacoma, Dungeness Spit, and Bellingham Bay); and British Columbia (Chilliwack).

The killdeer winters also in Bermuda, and is of casual occurrence at this season in southern New Hampshire (Isle of Shoals) and in Michigan (Plymouth).

The West Indian killdeer has been described as a distinct subspecies (Oxyechus vociferus rubidus), and is resident. The North American form does, however, regularly migrate to those islands, and it may winter there in larger numbers than is now known. Extensive collecting at this season will be necessary to decide this matter.

Spring migration.—Early dates of spring arrival are: New York, Montauk Point, February 17, New York City, February 20, Branchport, March 1, Albany, March 3, and Rochester, March 5; Connecticut, New Haven, February 24, Jewett City, March 2, Fairfield, March 3 and Carrollton, March 4; Rhode Island, Block Island, February 27, Westerly, February 28, Newport, March 4; Massachusetts, Muskeget Island, February 28, and Amherst, March 10; Vermont, Rutland, March 27; Maine, Waterville, March 11, and Farmington, March 28; Quebec, Montreal, March 25; Michigan, Petersburg, February 4, Ann Arbor, February 14, Vicksburg, February 21, and Kalamazoo, February 28; Ontario, Point Pelee, March 2, London, March 4, Hamilton, March 8, Toronto, March 20, and Ottawa, March 26; Iowa, Bentonsport, February 22, Keokuk, February 28, Iowa City, February 28, Fairfield, March 3, and National, March 5; Wisconsin, Unity, March 1, Camp Douglas, March 2, and Racine, March 3; Minnesota, Heron Lake, March 5, Jackson, March 10, Red Wing, March 12, and Lanesboro, March 13; Kansas, Harper, February 4, Wichita, February 7, Topeka, February 15, Onaga, February 22, and Independence, February 25; Nebraska, Omaha, February 19, Dunbar, February 21, and Falls City, February 23; South Dakota, Yankton, March 10, Huron, March 11, and Rapid City, March 12; North Dakota, Argusville, March 15, Fargo, March 18, and Bismarck, March 23; Manitoba, Margaret, March 23, Aweme, March 23, Pilot Mound, March 25, Treesbank, March 28, and Winnipeg, April 12; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, March 27, Eastend, March 27, Lake Johnston, March 30, April 2, and Carleton House, April 6; Wyoming, Yellowstone Park, March 12, and Laramie, March 16; Idaho, Neeley, February 1, Meridian, February 3, and Rathdrum, February 19; Montana, Wisdom, March 5, and Missoula, March 12; and Alberta, Flagstaff, April 2, Nanton, April 8, Veteran, April 10, Red Deer, April 11, and Edmonton, April 15.

Late dates of spring departure from the southern part of the winter range are not numerous, but killdeers have been observed in spring in Panama, March 3; Costa Rica, San Jose, March 15, and Porto Rico, San Juan, March 26.

Fall migration.—The arrival of these birds in that part of the winter range that is south of the breeding range, likewise has not been carefully recorded. Arrivals at this season have been reported from Porto Rico, Aguadilla, October 7; Guatemala, San Geronimo, October 29, Costa Rica, San Jose, October 15; and Nicaragua, Escondido River, November; and Panama, November 26.

Late dates of fall departure are: Alberta, Veteran, September 15, Innisfree-Mundare, September 17, and Edmonton, September 22; Montana, Missoula, December 25 (possibly winters occasionally); Idaho, Meridian, December 14, and Rupert, December 23; Saskatchewan, Eastend, October 10; Manitoba, Treesbank, October 11, Winnipeg, October 12, Aweme, October 15, and Margaret, October 15; North Dakota, Charlson, October 8, and Fargo, October 15; South Dakota, Forestburg, October 30, Sioux Falls, November 7, and Yankton, November 11; Nebraska, Nebraska City, November 10, Beatrice, November 16, and Lincoln, November 18; Kansas, Hayes, November 3, Onaga, November 8, Lawrence, November 11, and Harper, November 25; Minnesota, Correll, October 23, Hutchinson, October 25, Elk River, October 26, and St. Paul, November 26; Wisconsin, Genoa Junction, November 13, Madison, November 14, and Racine, November 16; Iowa, Emmetsburg, November 13, Grinnell, November 15, Keokuk, November 17, and Coralville, November 20; Ontario, Reaboro, November 4, Port Dover, November 8, Listowel, November 10, and Harrow, November 15; Michigan, Croswell, November 4, Sault Ste. Marie, November 5, Jackson, November 9, Livonia, November 13, and Ann Arbor, November 19; Quebec, Montreal, October 26; Maine, Phillips, October 24, and Cape Elizabeth (exceptional), December 25; New Hampshire, Hampton Beach, December 25; Vermont, Bennington, November 12; Massachusetts, Harvard, December 5, and Chatham, December 17; Connecticut, Meriden, November 22, and Hartford, November 30; and New York, Collins, November 22, Rhinebeck, November 24, Branchport, November 29, and Montauk Point, December 10.

Casual records.—The killdeer has been taken both north and south of its normal range in the Western Hemisphere, and casually in the British Isles. In Nova Scotia it was reported from Halifax Harbor on December 5, 1876, and at Meaghers Beach, on January 1 (Downs); Macoun (1909) notes it as a rare migrant in Newfoundland without further details; and a specimen in the British Museum was taken in the Hudson’s Bay region. In Alaska, one was reported as seen in August, 1898, on the Kuskokwim River (Hinckley), and a specimen was collected on the Stikine Flats, May 10, 1907 (Willett).

In South America specimens have been reported from several countries but so few in number it does not appear likely that any part of that continent should be included in the regular range. Among these records are: Chile and Paraguay (specimens in the British Museum, date and exact locality of collection unknown); Peru (Tambo Valley, October 25, 1867, Callao [Cassin], Pacasmayo, June, 1877 [Taczanowski], and Arequipa [Sclater and Salvin]); Ecuador (Chaupi, in June [Salvadori and Festa], and Sical, specimen in British Museum); and Colombia (specimen from Medellin in the British Museum).

This species has been taken or observed on a few occasions in England and Scotland (Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, 1867, near Christchurch, Hanto, April, 1857, Kent, April, 1908, Hampshire, April, 1859, and the Scilly Islands, January, 1885), and in Ireland (County Dublin, January 12, 1928).

Egg dates.—California: 73 records, March 15 to July 2; 37 records, April 3 to May 13. Michigan and Wisconsin: 15 records, April 5 to July 6; 8 records, April 29 to June 13. Pennsylvania and New Jersey: 29 records, April 1 to July 17; 15 records, May 2 to 29. Florida: 11 records, May 3 to June 30; 6 records, May 22 to June 9. Texas: 11 records, March 3 to June 2; 6 records, April 3 to June 1.

CHARADRIUS SEMIPALMATUS Bonaparte

SEMIPALMATED PLOVER

HABITS

Contributed, by Charles Wendell Townsend

This charming little wader, familiarly known as ring-necked plover or ringneck, is, during migrations, an abundant frequenter of our seashores as well as of the shores of lakes and rivers. But it was not as abundant in the latter part of the last century and in the beginning of this, for, as William Brewster (1925) says: “Both ringnecks and peeps began to diminish appreciably in numbers soon after 1890, and have since continued to do so, no doubt because of the ever-multiplying gunners.” Fortunately the Federal law for migratory birds, passed in 1913 and extended to Canada in 1916, enforced by the enabling act in 1918, has since protected the ringneck at all times, and he has responded markedly. Flocks of several hundred are now common where flocks of 30 or 40 were becoming rare. Their confiding nature and handsome plumage make them most interesting and attractive.

Spring.—Like most of the shore birds, the semipalmated plover seems to be in a great hurry to visit the breeding grounds. While, in the region of Massachusetts he leisurely wends his way southward from about July 12 to the end of October, a period of four months, the spring flight rarely lasts little longer than a month, from May 7 to June 14. Wells W. Cooke (1912) says: “At least four-fifths of the dates on the spring migration of this species fall in May. This is true for the entire district between the winter and summer homes, and the dates indicate that the migration in the United States occurs chiefly between May 10 and June 1.”

Migration occurs both by day and by night. Flock after flock may be seen on favorable days flying north along a beach, and the distinctive calls of the bird may be heard at night. I have recognized them clearly on a foggy May night when the birds were passing over the city of Boston. There are also records of the striking of lighthouses by these plover during the night.

It is evident that late migrants flying north in the spring must be late in returning, if they rear families, while those that return early in July must have been the early ones to migrate north. On July 30, 1918, I saw three semipalmated plover flying north along the shore at Ipswich. They were in full cry, and I wondered whether they were very late spring migrants or early autumn migrants temporarily turning back, or sterile birds that had no interest in the breeding grounds.

Courtship.—In the latter part of May and early in June on the southern Labrador coast I have seen this bird flying about in circles uttering its loud and rapidly repeated courtship song. The song, which is entirely unlike the call note, may be heard, and the courtship performance watched, not only in the spring but in the autumn migrations, for there is a recrudescence of the amatory instinct at this season in most birds. The song, if such it may be called, is then generally given from the ground and may be likened to a whinny or to the sound of a bouncing ball. The notes are at first slowly repeated, but the speed increases until the notes follow one another so rapidly that they nearly run together. The birds that utter this song crouch low with tails spread and slightly cocked, wings partly open, and feathers, particularly of the breast and flanks, puffed out. Sometimes one walks in this way around another, sometimes two face each other, crouched motionless and then spring at each other and up into the air like fighting cocks. Sometimes one runs after another which, on taking flight is followed by the first, but the most amusing form of this courtship is where two, thus flattened, spread, and puffed, walk slowly side by side as if they were doing a cakewalk, all the time uttering their clucking song.

H. S. Swarth communicates the following notes regarding courtship seen in northwestern British Columbia: “On as late a date as June 25 a male bird was seen going through with the mating antics, following the female about with head lowered and breast puffed out to an absurd degree, uttering frequently a low call note.”

Nesting.—A mere depression in the sand without lining or with only a few bits of shells or grass generally constitutes the nest of this species. P. B. Philipp (1925), writing of his experience in the Magdalens, says: “A nest as such is not constructed. A shallow hollow is scratched in the sand, and this is lined with bits of dead eel-grass, or a hollow is scratched in a bunch of dead seaweed.” H. S. Swarth sends the following notes of his experience with the nesting of this bird in the Atlin region of northwestern British Columbia:

A pair or two are pretty sure to be found where favorable conditions exist, but as the species requires an expanse of sandy or gravelly beach and as such beaches are not the rule about the lakes of the region, there are long stretches of shore line where the plovers are not found. They avoid rocky or stony beaches that are so favored by the spotted sandpipers.

He found his first nest, an unusual one, on the shore of Lake Atlin on June 10, and thus describes it:

The “nest” was in hard-packed gravel in a hole about 1 inch deep and with practically vertical sides. This depression was nearly filled with small chips and a very few straws. The eggs were nearly perpendicular in the nest, points down. It must have been some little labor for the bird to make this excavation, for the gravel was hard enough to retain the shape of the hole throughout the rest of the summer. I returned to the spot in September and found the cavity still sharply defined.

Audubon (1840) says of his experience in Labrador that this plover forms no nest, but makes a “cavity in the moss, in a place sheltered from the north winds and exposed to the full rays of the sun, usually near the margins of small ponds formed by the melting of the snow, and surrounded by short grass.”

Eggs.—[Author’s note: The semipalmated plover lays four eggs, often only three. They are ovate pyriform to subpyriform in shape, with little or no gloss. The ground colors vary from “buckthorn brown” or “clay color” to “cartridge buff,” “olive buff” or “pale olive buff.” They are boldly and irregularly marked with small or large spots or blotches of black, brownish black or very dark browns; some eggs are heavily blotched with “warm sepia” or “chestnut brown”; there are usually a few small underlying spots of “pale drab gray.” The measurements of 100 eggs average 33 by 23.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 36.2 by 24.3, 35.5 by 25.5 and 29.5 by 22 millimeters.]

Young.—The duration of incubation is not known. In the allied ringed plover of Europe the period of incubation is stated by Dr. W. H. Bergtold (1917) to be 22 and 23 days.

In the past it has generally been assumed that, with the exception in the case of the phalaropes, the female among the shore birds incubates the eggs and takes charge of the young. Joseph Dixon (1927) says: “After several seasons’ experience with breeding shore birds in the north the writer has come to believe that in more of our Limicolae than is generally known it is a common practice for the males to take a leading part in domestic duties not only in incubation but also in the care and training of the downy young.” With specimens in hand during the breeding season, he found incubating patches in the male semipalmated plover, and he says that “the males did a large part of the incubation and that it was the males that were the most fearless in the face of danger when caring for their young.”

P. B. Philipp (1925), on the other hand, studying the nesting bird in the Magdalens, writes: “I judge that the female does most of the incubating, three birds shot off the nest being of this sex.” H. S. Swarth also sustains the side of the female, for he writes: “With binoculars it is often possible to distinguish the sexes of the plovers, and it could be seen that it was the male who tired first in such efforts [shamming injury] to deflect danger from the nest. Even when he withdrew entirely, the female continued her protests until we were well out of her territory.” Dr. L. B. Bishop (1900), however, reconciles both points of view, for he says: “Bare pectoral spaces showed that both sexes assisted in incubation.”

The young leave the nest and run after the parents almost as soon as they are hatched. Bishop (1900) in the Yukon River region found an egg that was already pipped. He says: “I removed the young bird from the shell, and within half an hour the down was almost dry, the eyes were open, and it could hop about on its ‘knees.’”

Dr. W. H. Osgood (1909) reports the following observation by N. Hollister on a downy young of this species: “Although it was perfectly able to run about as fast as the adults, it at once lay flat to the ground when approached, with head extended forward in the sand, making it very difficult to see, so closely did it match the ground in color.”

The actions of the parent incubating the eggs when a human intruder appears is well told by H. S. Swarth in a communication, as follows:

The breeding bird skulked from the nest at the first appearance of an intruder, and, after performing an unobtrusive retreat to a distant point, launched out in conspicuous protest at the trespass. The call notes served to summon the mate, and sometimes even another pair of birds, all hovering about overhead or racing close by over the sand. A liquid call note, not particularly loud, was uttered constantly, and both birds of a pair would go through the form of pretended injury, dragging themselves over the sand with drooping wings and spread tail.

In another case—

A bird was flushed, as it had been many times before, at a point 300 yards or more above the water line, and I sat down quietly to watch her from the shelter of a scrubby willow. She flew to a distance, but returned in a few minutes, to run aimlessly about over the gravel nearby. Gradually she drew away, running over and between logs and other drift, her manner changing from one of noisy protest to furtive withdrawal behind any available cover. Finally, about 20 minutes after I began to watch, she settled down on the gravel, as it developed, upon the eggs.

At Seal Island, off the southern point of Nova Scotia, I found several breeding pairs of semipalmated plover, here, probably, at its most southern breeding place. On one occasion I came upon a bird that performed the usual wounded bird act, falling on its side and fluttering its wings as if badly injured. Presently it made off, fluttering and dragging its spread tail on the ground, keeping up this method of progression for over a hundred yards, although I had stood still. I then walked in the opposite direction and found a downy young running off in company with the other parent.

On another occasion at Great Caribou Island, Labrador, one of these birds appeared greatly excited at my presence, alighting near me, bobbing nervously, and protesting in conversational tones. Then it flew away, but immediately returned and flew by several times within a few yards, apparently in great fury, but not daring to hit me.

Plumages.—[Author’s note: In natal down the young semipalmated plover is darkly colored above. The entire upper parts, from forehead to rump, are mottled with “deep olive buff” and black. The auriculars and a broad band encircling the back of the head are velvety black; there is a distinct black stripe from the bill to the eye and from the lores to the auriculars. A spot under the eye, a ring around the neck, and the entire underparts are pure white.

In fresh juvenal plumage the crown, back, rump, scapulars, and wing coverts are “buffy brown,” narrowly edged with creamy or buffy white, the edgings broadest on the wing coverts; the lores, cheeks, and a broad band across the chest are “buffy brown” to “sepia”; the forehead, throat, a ring around the neck, and the entire underparts are white; the tail is like the adult, but tipped with “pinkish buff.” The buffy edgings mostly wear away before the partial postjuvenal molt, which occurs in late fall. The first winter plumage is like the adult winter plumage, except that some of the juvenal wing coverts are retained and the head is as in the juvenal. At the next molt, a partial prenuptial, the plumage becomes practically adult; only a few old wing coverts remain.

Adults have a partial prenuptial molt in the spring involving the body plumage, some scapulars and wing coverts, and a complete postnuptial molt from July to December; I have seen the wings molted as early as July 30 and as late as December 10. The sexes are alike in immature and winter plumage and not very different in spring, when the black markings of the female are duller or mixed with grayish brown. In both sexes in winter the black markings are replaced by grayish brown.]

Food.—The semipalmated plover is an active feeder and in this way is sometimes beneficial to man. In the stomachs of 12 birds shot on beaches I have found worms, small mollusks (Litorina, Mytelis), various crustaceans (Orchestia, Gammarus, Limnoria), and insects.

W. L. McAtee (1911) says that this bird eats the larvae of the salt marsh mosquito (Ædes sollicitans). Samuel Aughey (1878) investigated the relation of birds to insects in Nebraska during the great invasion of Rocky Mountain migratory locusts on the western prairies and plains of the United States from 1873 to 1876. Of 11 stomachs of this species examined, he found the average number of locusts in each was 38; of other insects, 19. Junius Henderson (1927) states that this plover “on coast, feeds largely on crustaceans, mollusks, eggs of marine animals, and insects; interior, feeds on locusts and other Orthoptera, and many other insects.” Audubon (1840) says: “At this period (September) they are now and then observed on plowed lands, where they appear to procure different species of seeds and insects.”

Behavior.—The behavior of this bird during courtship and in the care of the eggs and young has already been described. On beaches and mud flats it is sometimes difficult to see, notwithstanding its strikingly marked plumage. As the piping plover matches the dry sand, so the semipalmated plover matches the wet sand, its favorite feeding grounds. Here one may walk almost onto them without seeing them if they stand motionless, as they often do. While sleeping on the dry sand, even with the black and white markings in plain sight, they are also difficult to see. W. V. Praeger (1891) writes as follows of a wounded bird he observed hiding in a hollow in the sand:

While admiring the perfect blending of its brown shades with the surroundings I saw in its white rings one of the commonest objects of the seashore—the empty half of a bivalve shell. The white about the base of the bill was the “hinge,” the collar the outer rim, and the top of the head the cavity of the shell filled—as they usually are—with sand.

Gerald H. Thayer (1909), writing of the very similar ringed plover of Europe, speaks of the “eye-masking and ‘obliterative’ shadow-and-hole-picturing pattern.”

Although this bird migrates and feeds both by day and night, it often happens that a flock is discovered at sunset out of reach of the tide, clustered together as if they had settled down for the night. That they spend the night there in some cases at least is shown by William Brewster (1925), who says: “I have repeatedly observed them standing motionless, singly or in clustering groups, on some mud bar to which they had thus returned, keeping them in view until it was too dark to see them longer and finding them all there the next morning.”

During high tide, when their best feeding grounds are covered, these birds, like many other shore birds, are very apt to be found sleeping on the upper beach above the reach of the waves. The flock is generally huddled closely together, some standing but many squatting with their breasts resting on the sand, often in the lee of bunches of seaweed. While some sleep with heads turned to one side and bills thrust into the feathers of the back in the usual manner of birds, others sleep with heads sunk down between the shoulders. Generally some of the flock are awake and on the lookout, while the others open their eyes from time to time.

In flight the flocks are often compact, twisting and turning as if animated by a single thought, but they also fly in loose order. On alighting they at once spread out on the sand in true plover fashion, and do not, like sandpipers, keep together and move along close to the wave line. Another plover habit which at once distinguishes them from sanderlings or other sandpipers of a similar size, is that of running about with heads up and dabbing suddenly at the ground from time to time instead of moving along with heads down diligently probing the sand. With erect figures they run about in various directions, often pausing and standing still as if in thought, occasionally jerking or bobbing their heads and necks and ever and again swiftly dabbing at some morsel of food.

The semipalmated plover associates most frequently with the least and semipalmated sandpipers, but it also flies with sanderlings and other larger waders. Sometimes these birds fly in mixed flocks, but as a rule the ringnecks keep by themselves in flight, but readily join other species on the ground.

On the seacoast the ringneck frequents the outer beaches, the shores and mud flats of estuaries and tidal pools, and the sloughs in the salt marshes. Inland it visits similar regions on the shores of lakes and rivers as well as upland fields in search of food. As I have said elsewhere (C. W. Townsend, 1905):

Like all shore birds also, the ringneck is often exceedingly fat in the autumn, and I have known the fat of the breast to split open when the bird struck the ground after being shot when flying at a height. The fat is not only everywhere under the skin, but it develops all the viscera, and the liver is often pale from fatty infiltration. How birds under these circumstances are able to fly so vigorously on their long migrations, or even to fly at all, is certainly a mystery.

Voice.—The courtship song has already been described. The common call note is a clear, rather plaintive, whistle of two notes, very distinctive and frequently emitted while the birds are on the wing. It is expressed by Hoffmann (1904) by the syllables chee-wee; Nichols (1920) writes it tyoo-eep. It is cheerful and businesslike compared with the sweet and mournful whistle of the piping plover. When calling to others as they alight, or when standing on the sand, they often emit a single note, sweet and clear, but at times harsh and rasping.

Field marks.—The semipalmated plover is easily distinguished in the field from the killdeer by its smaller size, its single neck ring, and by the absence of the rufous color on the rump. Its darker colors distinguish it from the piping plover. From the sandpipers, even at a distance on the sand, it is distinguished most readily by its plover behavior, as already described. In flying they show a faint white line on the wings which contrasts with the general brown of the upper parts. The neck ring is noticeable both in the flying and walking bird, and the orange yellow of the tarsi and base of the bill can be made out with glasses. In the young, which arrive on the Massachusetts coast about a month behind their elders in the autumn migration, the ring is gray instead of glossy black, and the tarsi are pale yellow. It may be distinguished from the Wilson’s plover by the fact that that bird has a much longer bill, wholly black.

Game.—Although this little plover was formerly shot as game in the same manner as is described under the least and semipalmated sandpipers, it is now protected at all seasons. Besides its value as a destroyer of harmful insects, its greatest value is aesthetic. On the beaches of the sea and lakes its graceful flight, handsome plumage, and confiding ways are a source of great pleasure, and on this account alone it is worthy of protection for all time.

Fall.—The fall migration, as stated above, is a long and leisurely one, differing markedly in this respect from the spring migration. When a favorable spot is found, abounding in food and free from disturbances, these birds are apt to tarry there for some time. Here they grow fat and here they indulge in courtship performances as if it were the spring of the year. On beaches and marshes, where in former times gunners, hidden in blinds, were lurking to destroy them, all is now peace and quiet for these little birds, and their journey southward is undisturbed.

Of the fall migration Wells W. Cooke (1912) writes:

At one of the most southern breeding places near York Factory, Keewatin, in 1900, the most advanced young were still in the downy stage July 10 (Preble), and yet by this time the species is already in full fall migration, and the earliest individuals have appeared several hundred miles south of the breeding range. * * * Though most semipalmated plover migrate early, a few stay until freezing weather.

The adults migrate first, while the young rarely arrive on the Massachusetts coast before August 15.

Winter.—Although the majority of the species winter south of the United States, as is shown under “winter range,” some are to be found at this season on the shores of the Southern and Gulf States earning their living in pursuit of their small prey.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—North and South America.

Breeding range.—The breeding range of the semipalmated plover extends north to Alaska (Morzhovia Bay, Hooper Bay, and the Colville delta); northern Mackenzie (Mackenzie delta, Lower Anderson River, Franklin Bay, Horton River, and Bernard Harbor); Keewatin (Whale Point); Franklin (Annanostook and Kingnite Fjord); Victoria Land; Baffin Island; and western Greenland (Disco). East to western Greenland (Disco); Labrador (Port Burwell, Okak, and Tessiujaksoak); Newfoundland (Straits of Belle Isle); eastern Quebec (Upper Hamilton River, Wapitagun Island, Magdalen Islands, and Mingan Islands); and Nova Scotia (Sable Island). South to Nova Scotia (Sable Island and Yarmouth County); probably rarely New Brunswick (Grand Manan); northern Ontario (Moose Factory); Manitoba (Hayes River and Fort Churchill); southern Mackenzie (Artillery Lake); Yukon (Lake Marsh); and British Columbia (Graham Island). West to British Columbia (Graham Island); and Alaska (Berg Bay, Glacier Bay, and Morzhovia Bay).

In common with several other shore birds, nonbreeders remain throughout the summer in southern latitudes. At this season they have been taken or observed south to Venezuela (Margarita Island), Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, the West Indies, and Jalisco (Ocotlan), while they frequently are fairly common on the coasts of the United States and at points in the interior, Ohio (Lakeside and Oberlin), and Michigan (Detroit).

Kumlien and Hollister report obtaining young not yet able to fly at Lake Koshkonong, Wis., but if their identification was correct, this record must be considered accidental. The species also has been reported in summer from eastern Siberia (East Cape), where it may breed.

Winter range.—The winter range extends north to California (rarely Palo Alto); Texas (Brownsville and Corpus Christi); Louisiana (State Game Preserve); Mississippi (Biloxi); probably Alabama (Coffee Island); South Carolina (Dewees Island); and Bermuda (Somerset). East to Bermuda (Somerset); South Carolina (Port Royal); Georgia (Savannah, Blackbeard Island, and Darien); Florida (Amelia Island, Mayport, Daytona, Mosquito Inlet, Upper Metacumbe Key, and Key West); the Bahama Islands (Abaco, New Providence, Watling Island, and Great Inagua); Haiti (Monte Cristi, and Samana); Porto Rico; the Lesser Antilles (Anegada, Sombrero Key, St. Bartholomew, Carriacou, and Trinidad); Guiana (Abary River and Cayenne); Brazil (Island of Mixiana, Cajetuba Island, Pernambuco, Bahia, Abrolhos Island, Peranagua, and Santa Catarina); and Argentina (Puerto Deseado). South to Argentina (Puerto Deseado and Jujuy); and Chile (Calbuco). West to Chile (Calbuco, Coquimbo, and Moreno Bay); Peru (Chorillos, Ancon, Trujillo, and Payta); Ecuador (Puna Island, Guayaquil, and Santa Elena); Galapagos Islands (Albemarle and Narboro); Costa Rica; Honduras (Manatee Lagoon); Guatemala (Chiapam); Oaxaca (San Mateo); Sinaloa (Mazatlan); Lower California (La Paz); and California (San Diego, San Pedro, Saticoy, Pacific Grove, and rarely Palo Alto).

Spring migration.—Early dates of spring arrival are: Virginia, Arlington Beach, April 30; District of Columbia, Washington, May 3; Pennsylvania, Wayne, May 5, and Erie, May 8; New Jersey, Cape May, April 24, Camden, May 5, and Long Beach, May 10; New York, Long Island, April 19, Orient, May 2, Geneva, May 5, and Rochester, May 16; Connecticut, New Haven, May 1, and Fairfield, May 4; Rhode Island, Newport, April 15; Massachusetts, Rehoboth, April 21, Monomoy Island, April 28, and Dennis, May 5; Maine, Saco, May 5; Quebec, Quebec City, May 6, Montreal, May 19, Godbout, May 28, Eskimo Point, June 3, and Fort Chimo, June 11; Nova Scotia, Pictou, May 9, and Antigonish, May 15; Franklin, Winter Island, May 31; Missouri, St. Louis, April 2, and Kahoka, April 4; Illinois, Rantoul, April 9, near Chicago, April 25, and Cantine, April 26; Indiana, Denver, May 1, Terre Haute, May 5, and Bloomington, May 9; Ohio, Sandusky, April 20, Cleveland, April 21, and Oberlin, April 24; Michigan, Ann Arbor, May 5, Jackson, May 8, and Grand Rapids, May 9; Ontario, Toronto, April 21, Hamilton, April 24, Ottawa, May 9, and Guelph, May 15; Iowa, Sioux City, April 22, Ogden, April 24, and Emmetsburg, April 27; Wisconsin, Madison, May 5; Minnesota, Heron Lake, May 8, and Minneapolis, May 11; Kansas, Lawrence, April 22, Emporia, April 25, and McPherson, May 3; Nebraska, Lincoln, April 27; South Dakota, Vermilion, April 20, and Brookings, May 8; Manitoba, Brandon, April 28, and Reaburn, May 9; Saskatchewan, Lake Johnston, May 10; Mackenzie, Fort Simpson, May 16, and Fort Resolution, May 23; Alberta, Veteran, April 24, Camrose, May 6, Tofield, May 12, Peace River, May 20, and Fort Chipewyan, May 23; northern California, Eureka, April 17; Nevada, Smoky Creek, May 4; Washington, Destruction Island, April 24, and Grays Harbor, April 30; British Columbia, Ucluelet, April 28, and Comox, May 3; Yukon, Forty-mile, May 23; and Alaska, Admiralty Island, May 8, Bethel, May 10, Bristol Bay, May 15, Coronation Island, May 15, and Hooper Bay, May 19.

Late dates of spring departure are: Brazil, Cajetuba Island, April 18; Colombia, Sabanilla, March 27; Porto Rico, Luquillo, March 5, and Vieques Island, March 30; Haiti, Samana, April 13; Bahamas, Abaco, April 28, and Green Cay, April 29; Florida, Daytona Beach, May 25, Punta Rassa, May 25, and Pensacola, May 30; Georgia, Savannah, May 13; South Carolina, Kiawah Island, June 2, and Bulls Bay, June 7; North Carolina, Pea and Bodie Islands, May 17; Cape Hatteras, May 20, and Raleigh, May 22; Virginia, Cape Charles, May 24, Smiths Island, May 25, and Wallops Island, May 30; District of Columbia, Alexander Island, May 22, and Washington, May 25; Maryland, Patapsco Marsh, May 29; Pennsylvania, State College, May 30, Wayne, June 1, and Erie, June 2; New Jersey, Cape May County, May 23, Elizabeth, May 30, and Camden, June 1; New York, Canandaigua, June 7, Geneva, June 9, Orient, June 10, and New York City, June 14; Connecticut, New Haven, June 1, and Fairfield, June 8; Massachusetts, Lynn, June 5, Harvard, June 9; and Dennis, June 10; Maine, Portland, June 3; Louisiana, Lobdell, May 18; Missouri, St. Joseph, May 13, and Corning, May 18; Illinois, Chicago, May 29, Morgan Park, May 30, and Rantoul, June 2; Indiana, Lake County, May 27; Ohio, Columbus, May 28, Oberlin, May 29, and Lakeside, June 2; Michigan, Detroit, May 30, Sault Ste. Marie, May 31; Ontario, Ottawa, May 31, Hamilton, June 3, and Toronto, June 6; Iowa, Emmetsburg, May 20, and Sioux City, May 30; Wisconsin, Shiocton, May 28, and Madison, May 30; Minnesota, Lanesboro, May 23, Hallock, May 29, and Minneapolis, June 4; Texas, Corpus Christi, May 18; Kansas, Lawrence, May 18; Nebraska, Lincoln, May 20; South Dakota, Vermilion, May 19, Dell Rapids, May 22; and Forestburg, May 27; Manitoba, Lake Winnipeg, June 7, and Shoal Lake, June 12; Lower California, San Geronimo Island, April 13, Cerros Island, April 17, and Gardeners Lagoon, April 24; California, San Diego, April 23, Alameda, May 14, Fresno, May 15, and Santa Barbara, May 22; Washington, Tacoma, May 18; and British Columbia, Indian Cove, May 29.

Fall migration.—Early dates of arrival in the fall are; British Columbia, Nootka Sound, July 23, Tahsis Canal, July 26, and Okanagan Landing, July 28; Washington, The Olympiades, July 16; California, Alameda, July 8, and Santa Barbara, July 12; Lower California, Santa Rosalia Bay, August 16, and San Jose del Cabo, August 23; Saskatchewan, Big Stick Lake, July 19, and Cochrane River, July 23; Manitoba, Red Deer River, July 22, Lake Winnipegosis, July 22, and Oak Lake, July 28; North Dakota, Kenmare, July 18; South Dakota, Forestburg, July 27, Nebraska, Lincoln, August 9; Texas, Tivoli, September 2; Minnesota, Minneapolis, July 17; Iowa, Sioux City, August 5, and Marshalltown, August 10; Ontario, Toronto, July 22, Coldstream, July 29, and Brighton, July 31; Michigan, Charity Island, July 25, Jackson, July 25, and Detroit, July 31; Ohio, Bay Point, July 3, Oberlin, July 6, Cedar Point, July 8, and Lakeside, July 17; Indiana, Bass Lake, August 1; Illinois, Chicago, July 22, and La Grange, August 7; Missouri, St. Louis, August 20; Mississippi, Beauvoir, July 22; Louisiana, Bayou Chene, August 29; Maine, Portland, July 18, and Squirrel Island, July 31; Massachusetts, Lynn, July 18; Marthas Vineyard, July 20, and Harvard, July 26; Rhode Island, South Auburn, July 23, and Block Island, July 25; Connecticut, New Haven, July 30; New York, Long Beach, July 3, Orient, July 6, and Brockport, July 28; New Jersey, Long Beach, July 19, Brigantine Beach, July 25, and Elizabeth, July 31; North Carolina, Myrtle Sound, July 10; South Carolina, Frogmore, July 20, and Charleston, July 21; Florida, Palma Sola, July 10, Daytona Beach, July 19, and Pensacola, July 26; Bermuda, August 12; the Bahama Islands, Long Island, July 17; Cuba, Batabono, August 26; Lesser Antilles, Grenada, August 24, and Dominica, August 29; Panama, Toro Point, July 23; Brazil, Santa Catarina, August 4; and Colombia, Santa Marta region, September 13.

Late dates of fall departure are: British Columbia, Chilliwack, August 23, Atlin, August 24, and Okanagan Landing, September 3; Mackenzie, Fort Simpson, September 1, and Fort Resolution, September 1; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, September 2; Manitoba, Shoal Lake, September 14, Aweme, September 14, and Oak Lake, September 20; Nebraska, Lincoln, October 14; Minnesota, Lanesboro, September 15; Iowa, Emmetsburg, September 24, and Grinnell, October 22; Ontario, Toronto, October 26, and Point Pelee, October 29; Michigan, Portage Lake, October 25, and Detroit, October 29; Ohio, Oberlin, October 21, and Youngstown, November 2; Indiana, Hobart, September 24, and Peru, October 2; Illinois, Rantoul, October 15, and Chicago, October 28; Kentucky, Lexington, September 17; Missouri, St. Louis, September 25; Prince Edward Island, North River, October 27; Nova Scotia, Wolfville, October 22; New Brunswick, Scotch Lake, September 23; Quebec, Montreal, October 20; Maine, Lewiston, October 13; Massachusetts, Lynn, October 12, Cambridge, October 26, and Dennis, October 27; Connecticut, Fairfield, October 22, Norwalk, October 26, and New Haven, October 31; New York, East Hampton, October 22, Port Chester, October 25, and Long Beach, October 28; New Jersey, Sandy Hook, October 25; and Pennsylvania, Erie, November 2.

Casual records.—The semipalmated plover is more or less rare in the southern Rocky Mountain region where records are so few that it can be considered only as casual. Among these records are: Utah, Salt Lake City (reported by Nelson); Colorado, Denver, April 27, 1907, Loveland, May 6, 1890, and Grand Lake, Middle Park (Carter Collection); and Arizona, Fort Verde, September 8, 1884, Colorado River, September and October, 1865 (Coues), and Tucson, April, 1883 (Scott).

Egg dates.—Labrador and Ungava: 42 records, June 7 to July 7; 21 records, June 18 to July 1. Quebec to Nova Scotia: 33 records, June 5 to 29; 17 records, June 15 to 23. Arctic coast of Canada: 18 records, June 16 to July 20; 9 records, June 23 to July 4. Alaska and British Columbia; 19 records, May 27 to July 6; 10 records, June 1 to 9.

CHARADRIUS HIATICULA Linnaeus

RINGED PLOVER

Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain

HABITS

The ringed plover breeds both on the east and west coasts of Greenland, ranging north to Sabine and Clavering Islands and Denmark Harbor on the east side and to Inglefield Gulf on the west. It is also said to breed near Cumberland Sound in Baffin Land, but this may refer to the semipalmated plover, Charadrius semipalmatus, and it has occurred casually in Barbados, Chile, and southern Alaska.

The subdivision of the ringed plover into geographical races is attended with considerable difficulties owing to the presence of passing migrants on many of its breeding grounds. The Siberian form, Charadrius hiaticula tundrae is generally recognized, but is only distinguishable with certainty in summer plumage. Probably the Alaskan specimen belongs to this race. E. Lehn Schiöler, with fine series of carefully sexed birds before him, separates the Greenland breeding birds from the typical race under the name of Ch. hiaticula septentrionalis, but material with accurate data is too scarce in other collections to enable us to hazard an opinion.

Spring.—In northeast Greenland, where Manniche found this species breeding plentifully, the birds arrived about the end of May or the beginning of June, at the same time as the other waders. Icelandic birds arrive early: April 22 to 28 (Faber).

Dr. W. Elmer Ekblaw says in his notes:

The ringed plover is one of the most noticeable birds of the shorelands of northwest Greenland. Few beaches are unoccupied by these noisy little birds, and rarely is one out of sound of their shrill piping. They are quite as common about the streams and pools of the interior and along the seepage swales of the ground moraines. They come to the land as early as May 29 and stay until the last week in July. Almost invariably they are mated when they arrive and only rarely does one see more than a pair together, except where they congregate about swales or shallow pools to feed. They are sociably inclined and do not hesitate to make their nests near the Eskimo villages, probably feeling more secure from Arctic foxes when near dogs and human habitation.

Courtship.—The courtship of this species has been well described by Farren, Selous, and Stanford. The former (1910) says:

Ringed plovers may be seen in pairs skimming low over the ground, circling to a far height and descending again like a flash, almost touching the ground as they do so. They do not follow each other, but each describes similar evolutions, overlapping and crossing the other’s line of flight. Their long pointed wings, showing much white, give a fictitious impression of size and as they alight on the ground after skimming a short distance with curved drooping wings they seem suddenly to vanish from sight as they touch ground; in place of the long-winged graceful flyer is a little plump-shaped gray bird, very difficult to see as it runs with short quick steps over the sand.

Edmund Selous (1901) also describes a male as advancing toward the hen a few steps at a time, and moving his legs with a rapid vibratory motion during the pauses. Stanford (1927) remarks that the courtship is by no means easy to observe even with the aid of a powerful glass.

In one party on the beach on March 20, where at least two males were contending for one female, the males ran backward and forward with short, quick steps, and when another male was near the feathers of the back and the tips of the closed wings were elevated, the tall depressed and spread out to its full extent to show the white tips of the feathers, and the whole body arched with the head and neck drawn in, the black gorget being puffed out to nearly twice its normal size. In this crouching attitude the males ran aimlessly to and fro for half an hour at a time, but making no real attempt to attack each other.

Another male—

kept running in front of the hen and sinking down on the beach every few yards exactly as if settling down on a nest. Occasionally while brooding in this way he would tilt himself forward onto his breast with the closed wing tips pointing up almost vertically over his back, the tail depressed, and the legs scratching out sand and stones behind him. The indifference displayed by the hen to this performance was as noticeable as it usually is in the case of lapwings’ “rolling” on the ground. On several other occasions in April I saw cock ringed plovers settle down and appear to brood for several minutes exactly as if they were on a nest; in one case the bird kept turning round and round on one spot, and twice at least this action was followed by an attempt at coition.

The love flight often covers nearly a mile of ground, and both birds take part—crossing and recrossing with their bodies twisting from side to side and soft beats of the wings. The double note, according to Stanford, has a remarkably vibrant quality at these times and the throat appears to be swelled out.

Nesting.—Both nesting sites and the nests themselves of this species vary considerably. The commonest site is among the sand and shingle above high-water mark on the seashore. In some cases the eggs are laid in a hollow scratched in the sand with no lining of any kind, in others small fragments of cockle shells and small stones are collected and imbedded, while other nests are more or less substantially built, from a few dead bents carelessly arranged to well-made cups in which almost any material available is utilized, such as driftwood, rabbits’ droppings, stems of leaves, and shore plants, etc. On some beaches where there is no sand the eggs may be found lying on the bare pebbles, while on the north Norfolk coast they are often placed under shelter of sea heath, and nests have been met with in cornfields, several miles from the sea, or on open grassland in sewage farms inland.

Eggs.—Normally four in number, occasionally three on late layings, while instances of five are rare. In color they vary from stone color to ocherous or clay yellow sometimes with a warm tinge, spotted as a rule rather sparingly with brownish black. Occasionally varieties with large blotches of sepia are met with and white eggs have been recorded as well as bluish eggs, without markings. The shell is deep green when viewed from within. The measurements of 100 British eggs, made by the writer, averaged 35.9 by 25.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 39 by 26.5, 37 by 28.5, 32.2 by 25 and 32.7 by 24 millimeters. Eggs from Iceland and other northern localities are decidedly smaller.

Young.—Incubation is shared by both sexes which relieve one another at short intervals and the period is variously estimated at from 22 to 25 days; probably 24 or 25 days represents the average. The young are hatched within 24 hours and leave the nest as soon as the down is dry. Apparently a second brood is reared in some cases, but many of the late nests may be second or third layings.

Doctor Ekblaw writes:

The old birds were wildly agitated whenever I approached, and by the customary simulation of injury attempted to lead me away from the nest. The fledglings ran about as soon as hatched, and like all little shorebirds were quick to respond to a warning signal and sink into pebble-like immobility. The weather was so cold that the old birds did not leave the young, for when the brood was separated both parents sheltered some of the little ones.

Plumages.—The plumages and molts are fully described in A Practical Handbook of British Birds, edited by H. F. Witherby (1920).

Food.—Insects, including Coleoptera (Apion, Aphodius, Haliplus, Hydroporus, etc.), Crustacea, especially the smaller species (Gammaridae, Amphipoda, etc.), Mollusca, chiefly small marine univalves, such as Littorina, Annelida (earthworms), and vegetable matter (seeds of Polygonum, etc.).

Behavior.—This is an attractive and inoffensive species, sociable in its habits and met with in flocks of considerable size out of the breeding season, when their simultaneous maneuvers on the wing are a very characteristic feature of the great estuaries, the flocks appearing to change from light to dark as the upper or under surfaces are exposed. They may also be seen on the mud flats, making short runs at intervals, when the movements of the legs and feet are so rapid that the eye can not follow them.

Voice.—John T. Nichols contributes the following:

A rather clear, not very loud, low-pitched whistle, given on the ground as much as in the air, rather infrequent. This may be written kruip or puik, occasionally distinctly two syllabled and suggesting the semipalmated plover’s call, but lower pitched. It was heard in late September from several birds loosely associated with a larger number of scattered dunlin on tidal sands north of Liverpool. They usually took wing in silence, and the species seems to be a rather silent one as seen here and elsewhere on British shores in September. They were very likely not traveling, and their voice therefore not comparable with that of the semipalmated on home shores. Also the note described is very likely not analogous with the full, loud-flight note of the transient semipalmated plover.

Enemies.—During the autumn and winter months the flocks are occasionally harried by a migrating merlin (Falco columbarius aesalon), and some clutches of eggs are annually destroyed by marauding Corvidae (crows) and Laridae (gulls). On some parts of the coast which are much exposed, great damage is done by exceptionally high tides, as many nests are built close to the high-water mark.

Fall.—In Greenland Manniche (1910) observed that the old birds left in pairs about the first week in August, as soon as the young were grown up. The young birds immediately went to the shores and estuaries, consorting with young sanderlings and turnstones and leaving for the south early in September. At the Westmann Isles in south Iceland they leave between September 20 and October 10.

Winter.—In the British Isles the wintering birds are to be met with in flocks on most of our larger estuaries. When on the wing they sometimes associate with dunlin and also occasionally with redshanks.

DISTRIBUTION

Breeding range.—In the Old World, commonly in the British Isles and sparingly in the Faroes and Iceland; also probably on Bear Island and a few pairs in Spitsbergen as well as on Waigatz, Kolguev, and Nova Zembla. On the European Continent, from the Arctic Ocean south to the Mediterranean, chiefly on the seacoasts, and only locally by lakes and rivers. In the Mediterranean it is local on some of the islands and nowhere plentiful. The north Asiatic race has been separated, while in the New World its breeding range includes both coasts of Greenland and perhaps the east coast of Baffin Land, unless the last statement is due to confusion with the semipalmated plover.

Winter range.—Many remain in the British Isles through the winter, but birds from northern Europe migrate to the Mediterranean region and Africa, where they have been recorded as far south as Cape Province and Natal, the majority wintering south of the Sahara. The Atlantic Isles (Canaries, Madeira, and Azores) are visited on passage, and Asiatic birds have been recorded from the Indo-Malayan archipelago and even Australia, though some doubt has been cast on this.

Spring migration.—The principal passage at Gibraltar takes place in March, the latest birds leaving in April. From about mid March to mid April old birds are on passage northward and the breeding ground in Norway is reached in April, and in Sweden from late March onward.

Fall migration.—In northern Europe (Norway and Sweden) the southward movement takes place in September and at the Straits of Gibraltar the passage lasts from September to November. At Heligoland young birds begin to pass as early as the end of June and the beginning of July.

Casual records.—In Jan Mayen it apparently occurs in some numbers, but is not known to breed. Barbados, one, Chancery Lane, September 10. Gould’s record of one from Port Stevens, Australia, is a somewhat questionable one. One obtained at Sultanpur, south of Delhi, November, 1878; another at Gilgit, October, 1879. (These records must refer to the Siberian race, as also probably the Chilean occurrence and that from Sitka, Alaska.)

Egg dates.—In northeast Greenland Manniche found eggs from June 17 to July 18, while in Nova Zembla the young were recently hatched at the beginning of August and eggs probably laid late in June or early in July. In the British Isles eggs have been met with in March, but most eggs are laid from the end of April onward. April 16 to 30 (5 dates), May 1 to 14 (10 dates), May 15 to 31 (21 dates), June 1 to 30 (23 dates), July 1 to 30 (7 dates).

CHARADRIUS DUBIUS CURONICUS Gmelin

LITTLE RINGED PLOVER

Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain

HABITS

The little ringed plover owes its place in the American list to a casual occurrence at Kodiak Island, Alaska. It is noteworthy that in J. F. von Brandt’s paper in the Journal für Ornithologie, 1891, the Alaskan specimen is recorded as “Charadrius alexandrinus Pall.” There is also a specimen in the United States National Museum (No. 39523) which is said to have been taken at San Francisco, but some doubt appertains to the latter record.

Spring.—The range of this species does not extend far to the north in western Europe and it is only a rare straggler to the British Isles. In northern Germany it appears in fair numbers on the larger rivers and at lakesides, about the middle of March, but except in southern Sweden few cross the Baltic to breed.

Courtship.—H. F. Witherby (1919) has some interesting notes on this species which was breeding in company with the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) near Dunkerque, in northern France.

On April 28 the little ringed plovers were flying round after each other, with a beautiful slow, long, flap of the wings, much like the flight of a large butterfly and uttering a pleasing little song. This was evidently a “courtship” action and we found many “scoops” in the sand, but no eggs.

Liebe describes the song flight as beginning with a zigzag oblique ascent, followed by short horizontal flights at various angles over the gravelly bed where the hen is sitting, uttering meantime his musical whistle, which is answered by the bird beneath, and ending in a sharp descent in a curve toward the water’s edge and thence with low, skimming flight to the hen. The little ring plover is a much more demonstrative and noisy species than the ringed plover and when its breeding haunts are approached instead of running off with a low whistle and then flying a short distance ahead, it flies round and round the intruder with loud repeated whistling notes. Naumann (1887) expresses the pairing song by the words “duh, du dull lull lullullul,” taken in slow time and ending with a wonderful trill only to be heard on the breeding ground.

Nesting.—Continental writers lay much stress on the fact that this bird by preference always makes the nest in gravelly patches rather than in sand. This is not invariably the case, as the bird builds freely on sand banks in rivers where there is no shingle or gravel, and at times also on dry mud. It may be found nesting far inland, but nearly always in the neighborhood of water and shows a decided preference for the shores of fresh-water lakes and the larger rivers rather than the seashore.

Eggs.—The normal clutch is four, though three is not an uncommon number, and generally they are readily distinguishable from those of the other sand plovers. They are more pyriform in shape than those of the Kentish plover, and average less in size than either of the two other common European species. In color the ground color is often grayish when fresh but dries out to a yellowish stone or pale reddish ocherous, with many fine streaks and spots of dark brown and numerous small ashy streaks or spots. On the whole the markings are paler and scantier than with the Kentish plover, but in rare cases large blotches of rich brown and ash colors are found in some sets, and others show an approach to the normal type of Kentish plover. The eggs are laid in a mere hollow without lining in the gravel. The measurements of 100 eggs (68 by the writer and 32 by Rey) average 29.8 by 22.08 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 32.8 by 23, 30.1 by 23.5, 27.3 by 21.1, and 28.6 by 21 millimeters.

Young.—Incubation is said by Naumann (1887) to be apparently performed by both sexes, but in warm and sunny weather the eggs are left for long periods uncovered. The period is over 22 days, probably 23 or 24 (not 16 or 17 as erroneously given by Naumann). Only one brood is reared in the season as a rule, but some dates are extremely late and point to an occasional second brood.

Plumages.—The plumages and molts are fully described in A Practical Handbook of British Birds, edited by H. F. Witherby (1920).

Food.—Definite records are scanty, but it is evident that the main food consists of insects, including the smaller Coleoptera and their larvae; Diptera and larvae; Neuroptera (Phryganeidae or caddis flies and larvae). Naumann also found a small worm in one case in the stomach.

Behavior.—Witherby (1919) writes:

The little ringed plover is even more demonstrative than the Kentish and it is shyer and more difficult to mark onto its nest or young. Both species have a very plaintive alarm note which they utter constantly as they fly round the intruder, but the Kentish is less fussy and less noisy than the little ringed. When one is near the young both species go through various outcries, such as running along the ground crouching low with head stretched out, lying on the side with one wing up, the legs stretched out and the tail spread, or with the breast on the ground and both wings half spread, but the performance of the Kentish is much less abandoned than that of the little ringed.

P. W. Munn (1921) also writes:

The behavior of the birds at their nest is totally different from Kentish plovers, which are not demonstrative whilst they have eggs; but the little ringed plover flies wildly round and round, twisting and doubling and uttering its wild whistle, or else runs frantically about on the ground, whistling plaintively.

Enemies.—The eggs are occasionally taken by Corvidae, and the birds themselves sometimes fall victims to Accipitres.

DISTRIBUTION

Breeding range.—Central and southern Europe, from France, Denmark, southern Sweden, southern Finland and 64° N. in Russia, south to the Mediterranean and its islands and Africa north of the Sahara. In Asia its range extends across Siberia to the Pacific and includes also Japan. In India and the Philippines, Hainan, and Formosa it is replaced by other subspecies. It does not breed in the British Isles, but nests in Madeira and the Canaries.

Winter range.—Winters in tropical Africa, south to the Gold Coast, Fernando Po, the lower Niger, Lakes Rudolf, Albert and Victoria Nyanza, and the Red Sea coast; in Asia to Arabia and India and also to the Sunday Islands and perhaps New Guinea.

Spring migration.—In south Spain it arrives about mid March and is widely distributed in April, while in the eastern Mediterranean the passage takes place in Crete and Corfu in April. On Heligoland it is only a rare straggler.

Fall migration.—The north German breeding birds leave for the south at the end of September. Farther south the presence of immigrants from the north among the breeding birds is seldom noted.

Casual records.—In the British Isles there are about 10 well-authenticated records; April (2), August (4), and October (1 or 2). The supposed records from Iceland and the Faroes are not authenticated. Gaetke only records 2 at Heligoland in 50 years.

Egg dates.—In northern Africa eggs have been found from March onward; in Spain and the Balearic Isles, March 16 (1 date), April 15 to 30 (3 dates), May 1 to 14 (4 dates), 15 to 30 (3 dates); late dates, June 12 and July 11. In France and Germany, May 3 to 17 (7 dates), 18 to 31 (8 dates); June 1 to 15 (5 dates); late dates, July 19 and 22.

CHARADRIUS MELODUS Ord

PIPING PLOVER

HABITS

Contributed by Winsor Marrett Tyler

Wilson and Audubon were familiar with the piping plover as a common summer resident on the sandy beaches of the Atlantic coast. Audubon found it breeding as far north as the Magdelen Islands and wintering abundantly on the coast of Florida.

During the years between the time of these early writers and the present, the species has been subjected to many seasons of spring and autumn shooting which, in the closing years of the nineteenth century, brought the bird nearly to the point of extinction.

It is readily seen why persistent shooting threatened this bird’s existence. Its breeding range on the coast extends for hundreds of miles in a northerly and southerly direction, but owing to the bird’s very restricted nesting site it is narrowed in many places to a strip of beach only a few yards wide. Fortunately legislation intervened and removed the smaller plovers from the list of game birds, so that at the present time the piping plover is fast becoming one of our common summer residents again.

Spring.—Compared to most of the waders, the piping plover has a short and safe migration route. Moving along the coast where spring is further advanced than in the interior of the country, and having to pass over no large bodies of water on its way to its breeding ground, the bird pushes northward early in the season, often arriving in New England during the last days of March, the first of the shorebirds to reach our beaches.

Courtship.—In his notes A. C. Bent describes the courtship thus: “I saw and heard the nuptial flight and song of this bird. He flew in large circles or figure 8s low over the back beach near the marsh for several minutes, giving constantly a peculiar twittering whistling song.” Another entry in his notes under date, May 20, reads: “Saw piping plover mating, two males following one female. They were running around her in crouching attitude, with wings spread and trailing and with tail spread in display, uttering whistling notes.”

I once saw a male bird come up behind a crouching female and stand at full height close to her with his breast feathers puffed out and head held high, his neck stretched upward so that it was long and slim, the bird both in posture and shape resembling an upland plover. For a minute or two he stood thus while his feet beat a rapid tatoo on the sand. In this attitude of display he appeared bright colored and conspicuous in contrast to the female and the band across his breast (complete in his case) stood out sharply defined against the adjacent snowy feathers.

Nesting.—The typical nesting site of the piping plovers is the belt of sand bordering lake or ocean well above high-water mark, where the surface is becoming diversified and pebble strewn and wisps of beach grass begin to grow. Here they lay their eggs, commonly with little preparation for their reception other than a slight hollowing of the light sand, but not infrequently they collect small stones, bits of shell, or driftwood and line their nests with them or lay them near by.

The following quotations indicate differences in the appearance of the nests. In a letter to Mr. Bent, Allen H. Wood describes a very unusual nest. He says: “The nest was a hollow scooped in a mass of sand which had been piled up to a height of nearly 10 inches. Whether the birds formed the pile or not, I do not, of course, know, but a very careful examination failed to show how else the pile could have been formed.” A. C. Bent speaks in his notes of finding at Dartmouth, Mass., “three nests containing four eggs each, all on a high, sandy and pebbly beach in the heart of a tern colony. The nests were hollows in the sand, profusely lined with broken pieces of white shell and were quite conspicuous.” E. W. Hadeler found on the shore of Lake Erie, at Painesville, Ohio, a paved nest. He says in his notes that there were “four eggs, almost the same color as the ground and stones, laid in a slight depression on some very small flat stones and around the nest were stones of all shapes and sizes.” Philipp and Bowdish (1917) in New Brunswick “found a small colony of breeding birds, five nests, each containing four eggs, being located. The nests were on sandy beach, some in the open, others among sparse clumps of beach grass. They were slight hollows in the sand, some quite unlined, others with a well-formed rim of bits of broken shell or slate.” In a letter to Mr. Bent, Edward R. Ford calls attention to some birds nesting in an unusual environment. He says:

At Dune Park, Ind., the piping plover, to the number of five or six pairs, has taken advantage of the widening of the beach (through the operations of a sand company which has removed part of the dunes) and lays its eggs at a considerable distance from the water’s edge. The old ridges formed by the tramway beds, from which the rails have been, for the most part, removed; the old cinder heaps, bits of scrap iron and other odds and ends of human labor, with here and there patches of vetch and coarse grass, seem well suited to its requirements.

In common with some of its near relatives, the piping plover has the habit of making additional hollows in the sand in the vicinity of the hollow in which its eggs are laid. These hollows have been termed cock nests and have been compared to the nests which the male of some of the wrens builds while his mate is sitting.

My notes, taken on Cape Cod in the company of Charles A. Robbins in mid April, refer to this subject:

After some 10 minutes, during which time the two birds stood motionless on the sand facing the wind, they began to move about, the male taking visible interest in the female and following her as she walked away. They came to a place back of the beach where stones lay sparsely scattered on the dry sand and little bunches of beach grass and patches of Hudsonia were growing. Here the male stopped at a spot between two stones, lowered his breast to the ground and kicked out alternately with his legs scratching the sand from beneath him. Then moving off a little way he did the same in another spot while the female came to the place between the stones and continued the hollowing process which he had begun. Nearly, if not quite, in time with their rapidly moving legs, the birds uttered a series of short, high-pitched whistles, all on the same note, having the piping quality of their common call. When the scratching stopped, the notes stopped.

During perhaps a quarter of an hour the birds continued to scratch and pipe until several little hollows had been begun and abandoned. The female, however, scratched for the most part in the hollow between the stones, digging it out to a depth of an inch. Soon this phase of activity passed off and the birds began to feed.

During the hour the birds were under observation neither one made its bobbing motion.

Eggs.—[Author’s note: Four eggs are the almost invariable rule with the piping plover; rarely only three are laid in second sets, and I have found one set of five. They are ovate to short ovate in shape and have no gloss. The ground colors vary from “light buff” to “cartridge buff” or buffy white. They are sparingly, but quite evenly, marked with small spots, or fine dots, of blackish brown or black, and sometimes with a few underlying spots of “pallid purplish gray.” They are almost invisible on the sand or among small pebbles. The measurements of 71 eggs average 31.4 by 24.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 34.4 by 25.3, 31.8 by 26.4, 29.2 by 23.8 and 30 by 23 millimeters.]

Young.—Gayle Pickwell (1925) describes in detail the hatching of an egg and ascertained that the young birds may leave the nest a few hours later. He says: “It soon refused to remain in the nest. Finally, it left, and while it was tottering insecurely away the parent bird came running up with little chuckles of solicitude.”

Alexander G. Lawrence, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, says in his notes:

Careful search of the sand spit revealed a number of small white moving points, which later search proved to be baby piping plovers. While I was chasing one it tripped, fell on its back, and lay as if stunned, deceiving me so completely that I turned to get my camera to make a close-up picture of the little fellow. No sooner had I moved away than he sprang up and ran pell-mell over the sand, and the chase commenced again.

C. A. Bobbins (1919) describes further the behavior of the young birds thus:

Of course it frequently happens that there is no time for concealment. Then the young birds attempt to escape by running, the tiny legs working with surprising rapidity and carrying them over the ground so swiftly and smoothly that they looked like balls of down blowing before the wind. Also, if their escape up the beach is cut off and they continue to be closely pressed, they do not hesitate to take to the water. Even those only a few hours out of the shell swim well and navigate their frail craft, if not with intelligence, at least in a direction away from the source of danger.

Plumages.—[Author’s note: The downy young piping plover is sand colored above. The crown, back, wings, rump, and thighs are variegated with “cream buff,” “cartridge buff,” and grayish white, sprinkled or peppered with browns; on the wings the color deepens almost to “chamois.” The forehead is buffy white; there is a more or less distinct V-shaped mark of dark brown in the center of the crown and a circle of small brownish tips around the edge of it. The wings and thighs are marked with brown spots. A white collar encircles the hind neck, and the entire under parts are white. The juvenal plumage appears first on the scapulars and sides of the breast, then on the remaining underparts, back, and crown; the last parts to become feathered are the throat, belly, and rump; then the wing quills appear, and lastly the tail. In fresh juvenal plumage the feathers of the crown and mantle are “drab gray” or “smoke gray,” broadly tipped with “pinkish buff,” giving a decidedly pinkish tone at first; but these pink tips soon fade and wear away, leaving a dull-gray crown and mantle, faintly mottled with pale tints of buffy and dusky. The black bands on the forehead and neck are entirely lacking.

The first winter plumage is acquired by a limited body molt early in the fall and by wear and fading of much of the plumage that is retained. It is like the adult winter except for the worn and faded edgings on what juvenal feathers are retained, mainly wing coverts and scapulars. A partial prenuptial molt early in the spring produces a nuptial plumage which is practically adult.

Adults have a complete molt in late summer and fall—August to October—and a partial prenuptial molt in late winter and spring, mainly in March. In winter plumage the crown and mantle are “pale ecru drab,” without the pale edgings, with no black frontal band, and with a restricted brownish instead of black collar. The black frontal band and the black collar, characteristic of the nuptial plumage, are usually acquired in March; the extent of the black collar increases with age and the complete collar probably indicates an old bird.]

Food.—Arthur H. Howell (1924) says: “The food of this plover, as indicated by the contents of four stomachs secured in Alabama, consists principally of marine worms, fly larvae, and beetles.” E. H. Forbush (1925) lists the following: “Insects, crustaceans, mollusks, and other small marine animals and their eggs.”

The feeding habits of the piping plover as it hunts for food along our beaches are characteristic. In marked contrast to the nervous haste of the sanderling and the rapid darting about with lightning-like thrusts of the bill of the smallest sandpipers, the behavior of the plover is leisurely, and as they pick up food from the sand the movements of the head are deliberate. Three or four may sweep down the beach together, close to the sand, but when they alight, after a moment of stillness, they separate, each bird running a little way, isolating itself from its companions (another point of difference from the sanderling, etc., which in migration tend to keep close in a flock while feeding). Generally they begin at once to hunt for food. They run a short distance, then pause and stare at the sand with neck a little outstretched, head tilted a bit to one side, perhaps looking for a movement to show where food is, for often, leaning farther forward, they pick something from the sand. As they run over the beach—a run and a pause, another run and another scrutinizing pause, often changing direction to catch up a bit of food—the birds suggest very strongly a robin feeding on a lawn and the resemblance is strengthened when the plover seizes a 3-inch-long worm and drags it from beneath the sand, pulling slowly and carefully lest it break, and swallows it whole.

Behavior.—Their actions while feeding are apparently identical with those of the semipalmated plover, and the flight of the two birds is similar if not exactly the same. Their flight is wilder than that of the sanderling, for example, which drives steadily along; they twist and turn more often and tilt from one side to the other, giving the impression of extreme swiftness and agility.

Descriptions of the action of the sitting bird when disturbed differ very little. The bird is invariably wary and steals off before the intruder comes near, leaving him in doubt as to the existence of a nest. After the eggs are hatched, however, their actions change completely, and the parents display the utmost concern for the safety of their young. In the following quotation from his notes, E. H. Forbush describes graphically this behavior, and also shows that even in the early days of the young bird’s life the parents do not feed them. Mr. Forbush says: