Part 2 — Introduction (continued 2)

A partial molt takes place mainly in September, involving the body plumage, the tail and some of the wing coverts; this produces the first winter plumage, which can be distinguished from the adult only by the retained juvenal wing coverts. This plumage is worn through the winter and I think, in most cases, through the first spring. At the next complete molt, the first postnuptial, the adult winter plumage is acquired.

Adults have a nearly complete prenuptial molt in March, April, and May, involving everything but the flight feathers of the wings, which are apparently molted later in the fall or early in the winter. I have not actually seen these feathers molting. The lighter portions of the spring plumage wear away during the breeding season, giving the birds a very black appearance above. The complete postnuptial molt begins with the body plumage in August, or even July, and by September the plain “smoke gray” winter plumage is assumed.

Food.—The favorite feeding grounds of the eastern willet are on the broad mud flats or sand flats in the bayous, bays, and estuaries on the coast; it also feeds along the muddy banks of creeks and ditches, or about the pond holes and splashes on the salt marshes. If disturbed at its feeding it rises with a loud outcry, alarming all the birds within hearing. W. J. Erichsen (1921) has noted that, although they feed at all hours of the day, the nesting birds are seldom found on their nests during the early morning hours, when there seems to be a concerted movement from the breeding grounds to their feeding places. I am inclined to think, however, that they are governed more by the tides than by the hours, as most of their feeding grounds are covered at high tide.

Their food consists of aquatic insects, marine worms, small crabs, fiddlers, small mollusks, fish fry, and small fish. Some vegetable matter is eaten, such as grasses, tender roots, seeds, and even cultivated rice.

Behavior.—The flight of the willet is said to be swift, but it has always seemed to me to be rather slow and heavy, when compared with the flight of other shore birds, though perhaps it results in better speed than it appears to do. The willet is a heavy-bodied bird and its flight is strong, direct, and protracted; it seems to fly more like a duck than the other shore birds. Occasionally it sets its wings and scales downward; and on its breeding grounds I have seen it hover on quivering wings like a poised falcon. I have not found the willet particularly shy, as compared with other large waders, though it has the reputation of being very wary. When in large flocks in open situations, it is useless to attempt to approach it; but I have often walked up to within gunshot range of single birds and have frequently had small flocks fly within range while I was standing in plain sight. On its breeding grounds it is utterly fearless and bold.

Willets often perch on bushes, trees, fences, posts, rocks, or buildings, where they can watch and scold at the intruder. Mr. Maynard (1896) has seen them “perching on the limbs of pine trees, 40 or 50 feet from the ground, and sometimes, a dozen birds would sit side by side on a single branch, presenting a novel appearance.” Being partially webfooted, they can swim fairly well and probably alight on the water to rest when migrating at sea. On the ground they are rather sluggish, standing still much of the time, with heads drawn down. They indulge in the bobbing or nodding motions less frequently and more moderately than the yellowlegs do. Francis H. Allen has noted that “in bobbing, the head is drawn back and the tail lowered at the same time, the whole body turning as on a pivot, then the head is brought forward and the tail raised to its natural level.”

Voice.—On its breeding grounds the willet is a very noisy bird, pouring out a great variety of notes. Its usual note is a loud, vehement wek, wek, wek or kerwek, kerwek, kerwek, varied to piuk, piuk, piuk. Occasionally the whistling note, pill, will, will or pill-o-will-o-willet, is heard, suggesting the note of the yellowlegs in quality, accent, and manner of delivery. Less frequently another note is heard, which sounds like beat it, beat it. John T. Nichols adds in his notes:

At this season one hears several variations of the kiyuk flight note, one of these, ki-yi-yuk suggesting the loudest, most ringing call of the greater yellowlegs. A loud, high-pitched kree-uk, which is infrequent, suggests a note of the lesser yellowlegs. Similarly kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk in tern-like series from two mating birds is probably homologous with the alighting and flushing notes of the yellowlegs. The ordinary loud flight note of the transient willet is a far-reaching, gull-like kiyuk, repeated at intervals. A less frequent call resembles the wheu wheu wheu of the greater yellowlegs, but is much lower pitched, not loud. It is likely to be heard from a bird lingering at a given locality.

Enemies.—Man has been the chief enemy of the willet and the main cause of the restriction of its breeding areas. When it bred abundantly in Nova Scotia and Virginia its eggs were collected in large numbers as a legitimate article of food. And the birds were shot all through the breeding season. Being a large, fat bird, it helped to fill the game bag rapidly and so was a favorite with sportsmen or market gunners. It does not come readily to decoys, but it can easily be attracted by a skillful imitation of its notes, and flocks often fly by within range of the gunner’s blind. Mr. Nichols tells me that it will decoy well to the whistled imitation of the black-bellied plover’s note. As it is no longer on the game-bird list, it will probably be given a chance to increase.

Some colonies have been washed out by high tides and their natural enemies, predatory animals and birds, have done considerable damage. P. B. Philipp (1910), who visited Raccoon Key, S. C., says:

The birds had been badly persecuted by fish crows and minks; broken and sucked eggs were found everywhere, and two nests were found in which the skeleton of the bird was lying on sucked eggs, the work of minks.

Field marks.—The willet, while standing on the ground, is a nondescript looking bird, almost devoid of characteristic markings, especially in the immature and winter plumages. It is about the size of the greater yellowlegs, but more heavily built, with shorter and heavier, bluish-gray legs, shorter neck, and decidedly heavier bill. Its drab colors match well into a background of sand or mud. But when it lifts its black and white wings or when flying, no bird is more easily recognized, for its color pattern is unique and conspicuous; the black wings, with their broad white band extending across the base of the tail, advertise the willet as far as they can be seen. Its notes, described above, are also quite characteristic.

Fall.—I imagine that the willets, which breed in Nova Scotia, migrate at sea to the West Indies, mainly in August. I have never seen an adult willet on the New England coast in the fall, and practically all that I have shot are referable to the western form, but it is not easy to recognize the two forms in immature plumage. Willets of some form, in immature plumage, are quite common at times in southern New England and on Long Island from the middle of July to the middle of September. The main flight comes in August. I suspect that these are practically all young western willets.

Winter.—The eastern willet spends the winter on the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America, in the Bahamas and West Indies, and on the more northern coasts of South America. It is therefore resident or present the year round in much of its breeding range. It is rather rare as far north as South Carolina, but abundant in Florida and on the Gulf coasts, where the resident birds are reinforced by eastern and western willets from the North. In Florida they are occasionally seen about the ponds on the prairies or in the pine woods, but their favorite resorts are the broad mud flats in the estuaries and bayous or in the coastal marshes. In such places we often saw them in large flocks by themselves, where they were very shy and utterly unapproachable. Toward the end of March their numbers began to decrease, as the birds left for their breeding grounds.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—The Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America to northern South America; accidental in Kansas, Bermuda, and Europe.

Breeding range.—The breeding range of the willet extends north to Texas (Corpus Christi, Houston, and Galveston); Louisiana (Calcasieu, New Orleans, and Breton Island); Alabama (Grand Batture Island and Bayou Labatre); and Nova Scotia (Digby, Halifax, and Sable Island). East to Nova Scotia (Sable Island and Barrington); Massachusetts (formerly New Bedford and Nantucket); Connecticut (Madison and West Haven); New Jersey (Barnegat Inlet, Bridgeton, Beasleys Point, Sea Isle City, and Cape May); Maryland (Berlin); Virginia (Chincoteague, Hog Island, Cobb Island, and Norfolk); North Carolina (Atlantic and Beaufort); South Carolina (Waverly Mills, Sullivans Island, and Frogmore); Georgia (Savannah, Darien, and St. Simons Island); eastern Florida (Fernandina, Anastasia Island, New Smyrna, Turtle Mount, Mosquito Lagoon, Cape Canaveral, and Lake Worth); and the Bahama Islands (Great Bahama, Abaco, and Inagua). South to the Bahama Islands (Inagua and Andros); the West Indies (Grand Cayman); western Florida (Indian Key and St. Marks); and Texas (Brownsville). West to Texas (Brownsville and Corpus Christi).

The breeding range above outlined has become greatly restricted, and while it is still reported as breeding in Nova Scotia, it is of rare occurrence at this season on the coasts of the Northern and Middle Atlantic States. Willets have been reported as nesting on Barbuda, West Indies, but the record is probably based upon non-breeding individuals which also have been noted in Cuba (Guantanamo).

Winter range.—The winter range extends north to Texas (Brownsville); Louisiana (State Game Preserve and Breton Island); Alabama (Coffee Island); and probably rarely Virginia (Cobb Island). East to rarely Virginia (Cobb Island); rarely North Carolina (Fort Macon); South Carolina (Waverly Mills and Frogmore); Georgia (Savannah and Darien); Florida (Fernandina, Mosquito Inlet, Indian River, Sebastian, and Royal Palm Hammock); the Bahama Islands (Grassy Creek and Caicos); Cuba; probably Haiti; Porto Rico (Boqueron and Anegada Island); the Lesser Antilles (Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, and Trinidad); British Guiana; and Brazil (Catejuba Island). South to Brazil (Catejuba Island and Guapore River). West to Brazil (Guapore River); northeastern Colombia (Cartagena); probably Panama (Rio Juan Diaz); Yucatan (Merida and Cozumel Island); Tamaulipas (Matamoros); and Texas (Brownsville).

Spring migration.—Early dates of spring arrival are: New Jersey, Cape May, March 22, Long Beach, April 6, and Caldwell, April 7; Rhode Island, Rock Island, April 27; Massachusetts, Nantucket, May 2, Dennis, May 5, and Falmouth, May 11; and Nova Scotia, Yarmouth, April 22, and Wolfville, April 29.

Late dates of spring departure are: Mexico, Tampico, April 11; and Cuba, Trinidad, April 14, Siguanea, May 2, and Guantanamo, May 8.

Fall migration.—Information is lacking of the early arrival of the willet on the southern part of its winter range, but among late dates of fall departure are: Maine, Sagadahoc County, October 25; Massachusetts, Plymouth, October 4; Connecticut, Meriden, October 15; New Jersey, Salem County, October 8, and Caldwell, October 17; and Maryland, near Baltimore, about November 1.

Casual records.—The willet has been taken once in Kansas (near Hamilton, September 8, 1912); and one was obtained in Bermuda on July 3, 1848. It also has been reported on a few occasions from Europe, in all cases without complete data: France (Abbeville, also two in the Paris market); Dalmatia; and Sweden.

Egg dates.—Nova Scotia: 4 records, June 5 to 19. Virginia: 26 records, May 19 to June 16; 13 records, May 27 to June 8. South Carolina and Georgia: 53 records, March 10 to July 4; 27 records, May 9 to 22. Texas: 28 records, April 3 to June 10; 14 records, April 23 to May 24.

CATOPTROPHORUS SEMIPALMATUS INORNATUS (Brewster)

WESTERN WILLET

HABITS

When William Brewster (1887) described and named the western willet he characterized it as:

Differing from S. semipalmata in being larger, with a longer, slenderer bill; the dark markings above fewer, finer, and fainter, on a much paler (grayish-drab ground); those beneath duller, more confused or broken, and bordered by pinkish salmon, which often spreads over or suffuses the entire underparts, excepting the abdomen. Middle tail feathers either quite immaculate or very faintly barred.

It is a bird of the western interior; its main breeding grounds are in the Great Plains regions of the Northern States, west of the Mississippi River, and the central Provinces of Canada. Nearly all recent writers have recorded it as breeding on the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, an oft-repeated error. All the breeding birds that I have shot on the coasts of these two States, in May and June, were clearly referable to the eastern form. And I have been unable to find any specimens of inornata in collections that could be classed as breeding birds from these States. If the western willet breeds in Texas at all it must be on the plains or prairies of the interior. But it seems hardly likely that it would have a breeding range so widely separated from the northern range as outlined below. The eastern willet is strictly a coastwise bird and breeds, or did formerly, all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. On the other hand, the western willet is just as strictly a bird of the inland prairies and plains during the breeding season.

Spring.—The main migration route seems to be northward through the Mississippi Valley, chiefly in April; most of the birds are on their breeding grounds by the first of May or earlier and are laying eggs before the end of that month. Birds which winter in South Carolina and Florida probably join this route by an overland flight. There is a northward migration through the interior valleys of California to breeding grounds west of the Rocky Mountains, and probably some birds cross these mountains to the interior plains.

Nesting.—We found western willets very common about the lakes in the prairie regions of North Dakota and Saskatchewan; but owing to their habit of flying a long distance to meet the intruder and making a great fuss everywhere but near their nests, we succeeded in finding only one nest. This was on the higher portion of the open prairie, a long way from any water, near Big Stick Lake, Saskatchewan. The nest was a hollow in the ground, measuring 7 by 6 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep, lined with grasses and dry weeds. It was in plain sight in short grass; a few scattered dead weeds were standing around it, but no long grass. It contained three fresh eggs on June 14, 1906. Ernest T. Seton (Thompson, 1890) found a nest in Manitoba “which was placed in a slight hollow, shaded on one side by the skull of a buffalo and on the other by a tuft of grass,” on an alkali plain.

The western willet breeds commonly in Boxelder County, Utah. Three sets of eggs in my collection, taken there on May 7, 13, and 16, 1916, by the Treganzas, came from nests described as slight depressions in short marsh grass; one was near an alkali flat, one near a water runway, and one on a partially grass-grown dike.

This bird is a rare, or very local, breeder in California. J. Van Denburgh (1919) reports five nests found on “a partially flooded mountain meadow” in Lassen County on June 1 and 6, 1918. “The nests were made of pieces of weeds rather carelessly built up on the mud. Some were found where the water was a few inches deep and some where the mud was drying.”

Eggs.—The eggs of the western willet are indistinguishable from those of the eastern bird. There is a slight average difference in length, but the measurements widely overlap. The measurements of 56 eggs average 54.1 by 37.6 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 58.1 by 39.4, 50.5 by 39.7, and 54.9 by 35 millimeters.

Plumages.—The sequence of plumages and molts is the same for both races, but juvenal western birds are somewhat paler than eastern birds, and they have less barring on the tail feathers or none at all.

Fall.—From its breeding grounds in the interior the western willet migrates in three main directions to the seacoasts, almost due east to the Atlantic coast of New York and New England, southeast and south to the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts and southwest to the California coast. Probably the birds which breed east of the Rocky Mountains take the easterly and southerly routes and those which breed west of these mountains migrate to California. Most of the willets which we get in Massachusetts in August are immature western willets; I have never seen an adult. These young birds apparently come from the Great Lakes region, where they have been recorded in Illinois and Ohio and as far north as Toronto, Ontario. John T. Nichols says in his notes:

Along the bays and marshes of the south shore of Long Island the willet is a regular late-summer migrant in small numbers varying from year to year. Southbound shore birds of other species are now following this coast to the westward, but a large majority of the willet are moving in the opposite direction; that is, from west to east. Its maximum flight seems to come in the beginning of August, and a peak of abundance for the species was reached in 1923. At Mastic on August 4, 1923, 14 willet were counted passing west to east in 3 flocks during 2½ hours’ observation.

I have examined a number of specimens of these Long Island fall-migration willet, which have all been in the grey unmarked plumage of birds of the year (which I would not undertake to distinguish from adult fresh winter plumage), and remarkably uniform in size. Their bills varied scarcely at all in dimensions (slightly over 2¼ inches), being decidedly too long for the short-billed Virginia breeding bird, but much too short for the long-billed bird from the Dakotas (unless its young of the year are uniformly short-billed).

Winter.—Western willets mingle in winter with their eastern relatives on the South Atlantic and Gulf coast from Florida to Texas; they are especially abundant in Texas. They also winter abundantly from the coast of California southward. Bradford Torrey (1913) saw them, mixed with marbled godwits, near San Diego, in such numbers that he—

mistook them at first for a border of some kind of herbiage. Thousands there must have been; and when they rose at my approach they made something like a cloud; gray birds and brown birds so contrasted in color as to be discriminated beyond risk of error, even when too far away for the staring white wing patches of the willets to be longer discernible.

Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1916) has well described their habits, as beach birds at this season, as follows:

In the flocks of brown godwits the few gray willets looked small. They fed in the same way as the godwits, though their bills were shorter and they could not probe so deep, but they ran their bills ahead of them through the wet sand, probed as far as they could reach, and then trotted back before the oncoming waves. A thoughtless one sat down just at the edge of the water line one day, its back toning in with the sand, its long legs stretched out before it; but soon after it was comfortably settled up came the foam and it had to bend forward on its tarsus, raise itself, and flee up the beach. I often saw one resting, standing on one leg, or sitting at ease with white rump showing. When stretching the black of the wings showed effectively as it does both when the birds fly up and when they alight with wings raised over the back. Willet, willet, they often called as they went.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—United States and southern Canada (casually Alaska), south to northern South America.

Breeding range.—North to Oregon (Fort Klamath and Camp Harney); Montana (Bozeman); Alberta (probably Edmonton and Buffalo Lake); Saskatchewan (probably Quill Lake and Indian Head); Manitoba (Moose Mountain and Turtle Mountains); North Dakota (Cando and Larimore); Minnesota (Herman and Madison); and probably formerly Illinois (Belvidere and Glen Ellyn). East to probably formerly Illinois (Glen Ellyn). South to probably formerly Illinois (Glen Ellyn); Iowa (probably Newton and formerly Boone); Nebraska (Long Pine, Kennedy, Garden County, and Morrill County); Wyoming (probably Big Piney); Utah (Parleys Park and Salt Lake); and northern California (Beckwith). West to northern California (Beckwith, Grasshopper Valley, Alturas, and Goose Lake); and Oregon (probably Tule Lake and Fort Klamath). Non-breeding birds have been observed in summer as far south as Lower California (Mazatlan and San Quintin Bay); Colorado (Barr); Florida (Pensacola); and Alabama (Petit Bois Island).

Winter range.—North to California (Humboldt Bay); Texas (Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Rockport, and Refugio County); probably Louisiana; and Florida (Amelia Island). East to Florida (Amelia Island, Dummitts, and the Florida Keys); Tamaulipas (Tampico); probably Honduras (San Pedro); Ecuador (Bay of Santa Elena); and Peru (Tumbez). South to Peru (Tumbez); and the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle). West to the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle and Abingdon); Costa Rica (Lepanto); Guerrero (Acapulco); Nyarit (San Bias); Lower California (San Quintin); and California (San Diego, La Jolla, Morro Bay, San Francisco, Bodega Bay, and Humboldt Bay).

Spring migration.—Early dates of arrival are: Arkansas, Osceola, March 29; Missouri, Stotesbury, April 8, and St. Louis, April 27; Illinois, Quincy, April 5, and Big Lake, April 29; Iowa, Cedar Rapids, April 2, Emmetsburg, April 21, and Keokuk, April 30; Wisconsin, Heron Lake, April 10, and Waseca, April 10; Minnesota, Lanesboro, April 26; Kansas, Manhattan, April 28, and McPherson, April 30; Nebraska, Niobrara, April 26, Neligh, May 1, and Valentine, May 5; South Dakota, Pitrodie, April 25, and Forestburg, April 28; North Dakota, Charlson, May 1, Jamestown, May 1, and Harrisburg, May 2; Manitoba, Treesbank, April 30; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, April 26, Wiseton, May 2, and Eastend, May 7; Colorado, Durango, April 15, Barr, April 20, and Baca County, April 28; Utah, Great Salt Lake, April 12; Wyoming, Cokeville, April 26, and Cheyenne, April 30; Montana, Lewiston, May 2, and Billings, May 4; Oregon, Narrows, April 15; and Alberta, Flagstaff, April 26, Vagreville, April 28, and Alliance, April 29.

Late dates of spring departure are: Florida, Indian Rocks, May 6; Alabama, Coden, May 17; Tamaulipas, Tampico, April 11; Texas, Brownsville, April 23, and Texas City, May 13; Lower California, Tres Marias Islands, April 8, and Cerros Island, April 18; and Nyarit, San Blas, April 24, and Los Penas Island, May 5.

Fall migration.—Early dates of arrival in the fall are: Lower California, San Quintin, August 8; Arizona, San Bernardino Ranch, August 13; New Mexico, Carlsbad, August 16, and Capitan Mountains, August 28; Oklahoma, Yarnaby, August 9; Texas, Padre Island, August 20; and Tehuantepec, San Mateo, August 6. Western willets also are of fairly regular occurrence in fall migration on the Atlantic coast, specimens having been collected in Massachusetts, Newburyport, August 5, and Boston, August 8; Connecticut, Stony Creek, August 15, and West Haven, August 26; Rhode Island, Quonochontaug, August 5; and New York, Amityville, August 14, and Hempstead Bay, August 15.

Late dates of fall departure are: Oregon, Yaquina Bay, October 1; Montana, Terry, September 8; Idaho, Rupert, October 20; Nevada, Carson River, October 13; Arizona, San Bernardino Ranch, September 2; Wyoming, Yellowstone Park, September 13; New Mexico, Jicarilla Apache Reservation, September 13; Saskatchewan, Redberry, September 2; North Dakota, Dawson, September 17, and Harrisburg, October 3; Nebraska, Long Pine, September 10, and Lincoln, September 29; Iowa, Cerro Gordo County, September 2, and Keokuk, October 27; Illinois, Chicago, September 30; and Connecticut, West Haven, September 3, and once in October.

Casual records.—In spite of its regular occurrence on the Atlantic coast, the western willet has been detected only on a few occasions in the interior States east of the Mississippi River. There appear to be several records for Ohio from April 30 (Oberlin) to November 2 (Bay Point); one for Indiana, Millers, August 14, 1897; and one for Michigan, Ann Arbor, May, 1889. One was taken July 20, 1898 at Toronto, Ontario, and four other specimens without data are presumed to be from the same locality (Fleming). Other casual occurrences are: Washington, Seattle, July 23, 1922, and Tacoma, September 6, 1913; British Columbia, Clover Point, August 18, 1898; probably Yukon, Lake Marsh, July 2, 1899; and Alaska, Lynn Canal (Hartlaub).

Egg dates.—Utah: 32 records, April 5 to May 21; 16 records, May 4 to 14. Saskatchewan and North Dakota: 19 records, May 8 to June 22; 10 records, May 23 to June 7. Washington to California: 9 records, May 8 to June 16.

HETEROSCELUS INCANUS (Gmelin)

WANDERING TATTLER

HABITS

Along the rocky and stony portions of the Pacific coast, and especially on the islands and outlying reefs, this ocean wanderer is a common and well-known bird. Here it is much at home among the surf-swept rocks, drenched in ocean spray and often enveloped in fog; it has no fear of foaming breakers, which it nimbly dodges as it seeks its bits of marine food among the kelp and barnacles on the rocks. It is, at most seasons, essentially a bird of the seashore, but is seldom seen on the sandy or muddy shores. The dark color of its upper plumage matches its surroundings and it is not easily seen among the gloomy rocks, unless its characteristic outline can be seen against the sky or water as it poses on the top of some prominent rock to watch the intruder. If he approach too near, it flies off a short distance with loud, piercing cries and alights on another rock, to bob and teeter, somewhat like our familiar spotted and solitary sandpipers. It is generally solitary and seems to be satisfied with its own society.

It is well named, as it is a famous wanderer. I am tempted to quote Dr. E. W. Nelson’s (1887) well-chosen words on this subject, as follows:

Over the entire coast of the Pacific north of the equator its presence has been noted by the various naturalists whose Bohemian tastes have made their lives somewhat akin to that of this gentle wanderer. Across the broad ocean it ranges to those bits of paradise dotting the South Seas, tripping its way daintily on the beaches of the coral-enclosed islands, their feet laved by the warm waters of the tropics, and their eyes familiar with the luxuriant face of nature in its gentlest and most lovely state. The next season may find them thousands of miles to the north, under the shadow of the stupendous cliffs and grand but desolate and repellent scenes of the Aleutian Islands.

Spring.—Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1912) says that “the spring migration begins in March, bringing the birds to the coast of California by the latter part of the month. The Aleutian Islands are reached the middle of May, and the most northern part of the range by the latter part of the month.” H. W. Henshaw (1902) says that “about April or May the greater number” leave the Hawaiian Islands for the north. “While most go, many remain, the latter being the immature birds and the weaklings. At all events, those that remain retain the immature or winter dress and show not the slightest inclination to breed.” Henry Seebohm (1890) reports a straggler taken on the Bonin Islands on May 11, 1889. D. E. Brown’s notes record one at Forrester Island, Alaska, on May 3, 1917, and several at Grays Harbor, Wash., from May 4 to 21, 1920. He says: “At low tide these birds were found, with flocks of black turnstone, on the rock jetty and at high tide among the drift logs on the upper beach.”

Nesting.—The nesting habits of the wandering tattler long remained shrouded in mystery. Various observers had seen it on or near its probable breeding grounds in the interior of different parts of Alaska. Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood (1907) collected a very young bird in which “the head and neck were still downy,” near the upper MacMillan River, Yukon, on September 5, 1904, and he reported a pair, which evidently had young, seen by Charles Sheldon, near Mount McKinley, July 28, 1906. Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1910) mentions a “half-grown juvenal” taken by Joseph Dixon on Montague Island, July 28, 1908.

The first nest was found in 1912 and is thus described in a letter from J. M. Jessup to Dr. Charles W. Richmond, accompanied by a specimen of the bird:

The wandering tattler was found nesting on a gravel bar near a small stream flowing into the Arctic Ocean, the exact location was about latitude 69° 10´ and longitude 141° west, or about 25 miles south of the Arctic Ocean near the international boundary between Canada and Alaska. The nest was first observed by Sir Frederick Lambart of the Canadian Coast and Geodetic Survey, and was later identified by myself. Sir Frederick describes the nest as follows: “The nest was situated in the middle of an elevated gravel bar open to the sky for fully 50 feet all around. The nest was just alongside a small rock; there were no sticks or any form of nest material, it consisted merely of a semispherical hollow in dry fine and coarse gravel. Four eggs were in the nest, I should say about the size of a ptarmigan’s, brownish blue and mottled very much like a sandpiper’s. The young birds were noted to have come out of the eggs July 9.”

Ten years later Olaus J. Murie (1924) collected a downy, young wandering tattler on Jennie Creek, a small tributary of Savage River, in the Alaska Range, on June 9, 1922. The following year he completed the record by finding a nest and collecting the first and only set of eggs ever taken. He has given us a very good account of the whole proceeding, from which I quote, as follows:

The following day, July 1, we continued up Savage River 9 miles and made permanent camp. We had been on the lookout for the birds and I had pointed out to Mr. Buhmann one in the distance, that he might have an idea for what we were looking. About noon Mr. Buhmann and my brother were riding on the wagon, while I walked ahead over the usual gravel bars, when Mr. Buhmann suddenly called out to me, “Is that one of your birds?” I turned and saw a wandering tattler flying away. The bird had been flushed by the horses. We all three walked back carefully beside the wagon and in a few moments spied the nest and eggs a short distance to the rear, not over 6 inches from the wheel track! Mr. Buhmann picked up one of the eggs, wishing, as he enthusiastically explained, to be the first one who had ever handled the egg of a wandering tattler. I explained that the eggs should not be disturbed until photographed, and it was carefully replaced in the nest. A series of exposures was made of the nest and eggs, and we moved away some distance with our outfit and prepared our lunch. In the meantime the bird returned and settled on the nest. Several photographs were then taken of the bird on the eggs, the last one at a distance of about 10 feet or less. The nest and eggs were then taken and carried to our camping ground.

All our observations indicate that this nesting site is characteristic, that the wandering tattler prefers the gravel bars of mountain streams, as typified by Savage River. These rivers are rapid and split into numerous channels, sometimes in an intricate network over the gravelly valley. This nest was found on Savage River about 5 miles above the mouth of Jennie Creek at an elevation of about 4,000 feet. It was placed on a gravel bar about 30 feet from the nearest water, and was sunk in a shallow depression in the gravel. It was well built, unusually elaborate for a shore bird. It was composed principally of fine roots carefully woven into a firm structure, including a number of twigs around the edges. Small bits of twigs and some dry leaves had been used for lining. It was so compact that I had no difficulty in picking it up and transporting it to camp. The diameter of the nest to the edges of the finely woven body was about 5 inches, but, of course, some of the twigs extended much farther.

Eggs.—The eggs taken by Mr. Murie on Savage River, Alaska, July 1, 1923, are now in the United States National Museum and are, so far as I know, the only eggs in existence. In shape they are between pyriform and subpyriform, and they have a slight gloss. The ground color is between “glaucous” and “greenish glaucous,” as in some crow’s eggs. They are spotted and blotched irregularly, rather heavily near the larger end and rather sparsely elsewhere, with dark browns, from “seal brown” or “bone brown” to “burnt umber” or “Verona brown”; there are some elongated splashes and some small, inconspicuous, underlying spot of various shades of “brownish drab.” They measure 43.3 by 32.7, 44.5 by 31.4, 44.1 by 31.5, and 43.7 by 32.3 millimeters.

Young.—The young are able to run about soon after they are hatched and are carefully guarded by both parents. An adult, secured by Mr. Murie with the downy young, proved to be a male. “A whistled cheep, imitating a chick, would bring the excited bird within a few feet.” Mr. Jessup writes that the mother bird was much distressed and attempted to lure him from her little one by feigning lameness.

Plumages.—Mr. Murie (1924) has described the downy young very well, as follows:

These downy young may be described as follows: Under parts dull white with a faint indication of grayish on upper breast and lower fore neck; upper parts pale gray, with a very slight suggestion of buffy on wings, rump, and tail, more evident in the fresh specimens than in the skin; upper parts narrowly, irregularly, and indistinctly barred with blackish, with dull black loral and postocular streaks and with irregular black spots on hind pileum. In a colored sketch made from freshly killed bird, tarsus and upper part of toes appear dull glaucous green; the under surface of foot olive yellow; bill dull glaucous blue.

Another bird which I have examined, as a dried skin, does not show any buffy tints. A young bird, mainly in juvenal plumage but still downy on the hind neck, chin and forehead, taken on September 5, is from “deep mouse gray” to “dark olive gray” above, with very faint whitish tips; the wing coverts have more prominent white edgings; the chest is “pallid mouse gray,” and the flanks “pale mouse gray,” both more or less indistinctly barred; the rest of the under parts are white. A limited postjuvenal molt of the body plumage occurs in September, producing the first winter plumage; this is much like the adult, except that the juvenal wing coverts, some of the scapulars and the mottled plumage of the breast and flanks are retained. Some young birds apparently assume a plumage which is practically adult at the first prenuptial molt in April.

Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from August to January, the wings being molted last, between October and January. I have seen birds in full nuptial plumage from April 13 to September 14 and in full winter plumage as late as April 12. In winter adults the upper parts are slightly lighter gray than in summer, the sides of the head, chest and flanks are still lighter gray and the chin and belly are white. The partial prenuptial molt occurs in April.

Food.—The usual feeding grounds of the wandering tattler are the rocky shores, where it searches for its food among the kelp-covered rocks at the water’s edge, following the receding waves and nimbly dodging the incoming breakers or making short flights to avoid the surf. If over-taken and drenched it flies to a rock, shakes the water from its plumage and soon resumes its feeding. B. J. Bretherton (1896) says that on Kodiak Island:

This species seemed to habitually frequent the sand or gravel beaches in preference to rocky localities, and had regular feeding grounds to which they resorted at certain stages of the tide, returning regularly each day at the same time. Their food consists largely of decapods together with small crabs, marine worms, and minute mollusks.

Its food seems to be mainly insects, but includes small crustaceans, minute mollusks, marine worms, and other small marine animals. The contents of six stomachs, reported on by Preble and McAtee (1923) consisted of “flies (Diptera), 46.1 per cent; caddis flies 30.6 per cent; amphipods, 16 per cent; mollusks, 3.6 per cent; and beetles 1.1 per cent.”

Behavior.—The movements of wandering tattlers are often suggestive of spotted sandpipers with which they are sometimes associated; they indulge in the same “tip-up” motion of the body, though less frequently; and their flight is very similar, with intermittent strokes of down-curved wings. W. Leon Dawson (1923) says:

When it alights, it sits for some time motionless in a plover like attitude, with its long bill held horizontally, invisible, in the dull light of a foggy day, unless, perchance, outlined against the surf. At other times the bird will betray its uneasiness by a jetting motion of the tail.

In his notes on the Farallones, Mr. Dawson (1911) says:

Contrary to earlier statements these tattlers do spend a considerable portion of their time upon the higher ground. The tiny bowlder-strewn meadow surrounding my earlier camp (just east of Franconia Beach) was a favorite resting place for them, and I am inclined to think the birds spent the night there, for some were invariably startled upon my first appearance mornings. Having a common affection for the tide reefs, wandering tattlers are not infrequently found in loose association with black turnstones; but when put to flight they pay no attention whatever to the fortunes of their chance shipmates nor to others of their own kind.

Dr. E. W. Nelson (1883) writes:

Their note is a loud, ringing whistle, which seems specially fitted to the bird and the haunts it occupies, and as the shrill cry reechoes from the towering cliffs and ledges at the base of which it feeds its peculiar character and intonation might lead one to fancy some genie of the rocks was uttering its cry. When the birds are approached by boat as they are feeding along the water’s edge they ascend gradually, with an expression of mild curiosity, and pass from ledge to ledge until they reach a jutting point on the face of the cliff or its brow, where they stand in relief, like beautiful clear-cut statuettes, and do not utter a sound or move until they are still further alarmed, when they take flight, uttering at the same moment their loud note before mentioned.

Voice.—Doctor Nelson (1880) describes its note as “a loud, ringing kla, kla, kla,” and again he (1887) calls it “a loud, clear, flutelike tu, tu, tu, tu.” Mr. Dawson (1923) says it is “a quavering cry, somewhat like the tew, tew, tew of the greater yellowlegs, but more subdued.” Mr. Murie (1924) writes:

Whenever I approached the home grounds of a wandering tattler he would fly to meet me and would scold excitedly, uttering a vigorous deedle-deedle-deedle-deedle-dee, with variations which I failed to record minutely.

Fall.—Doctor Nelson (1887) says:

They usually reappear on the seacoast about St. Michaels the last of July or very early in August and remain until from the 1st to 10th of September. During their presence on the coast of Norton Sound they show a decided preference for the most rugged and rock-bound parts of the shore, rarely or never occurring elsewhere. It is a frequent and regular summer bird on the rocky parts of the coast to the vicinity of Bering Straits and occurs on the islands and Siberian shore of Bering Sea.

William Palmer (1899) says that on the Pribilof Islands:

It is the first species to return in the fall; adult birds, July 10 and afterwards. Usually in pairs on the surf-swept rocks, but sometimes seen—usually the brownish, unbarred, and less wary immature—on open sandy places, and sometimes with the turnstones on a sandy beach. They are not shy, but are seldom noticed when perched on the wet rocks, which harmonize so well with their color. Solitary birds remain quiet and unseen and will permit one to approach quite close, frequently startling us as they get up suddenly, almost under our very feet, and uttering their loud, shrill cry, flying off to another resting place.

From the Aleutian Islands and the interior of Alaska there is a southward migration to the islands in the Pacific, where it spends the winter, and a more general movement southward along the Pacific coast of North America. D. E. Brown’s notes record it on the coast of Washington from August 10 to September 15. It has been recorded in California early in July, but these were perhaps summer sojourners; the return movement seems to come along between July 15 and August. H. W. Henshaw (1902) says that the return migrants begin to appear in the Hawaiian Islands “about the middle or latter part of August”; he noticed that “the first comers are adults, chiefly males, and still in nuptial dress.”

Winter.—The Santa Barbara Islands, off the coast of southern California, mark the northern limit of the normal winter range of the wandering tattler, where a few may always be found in winter. Most of the birds go farther south. W. B. Alexander tells me that the wandering tattler occasionally visits Cape York, North Queensland, and there is a specimen, unquestionably of this species, in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy in Cambridge, from Australia.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—Western North and South America, eastern Asia, and Oceanica.

Breeding range.—The nest and eggs of the wandering tattler have actually been found only on one occasion (Savage River, Alaska [Murie]); but the evidence of young birds seems sufficient to establish additional breeding stations in Alaska (Mount McKinley and probably Montague Island); and in Yukon (Russell Mountains). They probably breed also in eastern Siberia (Plover Bay). Nonbreeding specimens have been observed or collected in summer at many localities on the Pacific coast, south to Lower California (Socorro Island, San Jose Island, and Cocos Island); and the Hawaiian Islands (Cocoanut Island).

Winter range.—The winter range of the wandering tattler extends north to the Philippine Islands (Mindanao); the Hawaiian Islands (Laysan, Kauai, and Hawaii); and probably, rarely, Oregon (Cannon Beach). East to probably, rarely Oregon (Cannon Beach); California (Santa Cruz Island, and Santa Monica); Lower California (Cedros Island, Comondu, and San Jose Island); and the Galapagos Islands (Abingdon, Indefatigable, Chatham, and Hood). South to the Galapagos Island (Hood and Albemarle); Paumotu Islands; Society Islands (Huaheine); Samoa; Fiji Islands (Ovalau); New Hebrides (Aneiteum); and northeastern Australia (Cape York). West to northeastern Australia (Cape York); and the Philippine Islands (Mindanao).

Spring migration.—Early dates of spring arrival are: Washington, Shoalwater Bay, May 1; Alaska, Forrester Island, May 7, Cape Prince of Wales, May 11, Sanak Island, May 15, Unalaska Island, May 18, and Mount McKinley, May 18; and Siberia, Copper Island, May 17.

Late dates of spring departure are: Guerrero, Acapulco, April 30; Lower California, Cedros Island, April 24, Socorro Island, May 10, Guadeloupe Island, May 18, and Clarion Island, May 20; California, San Nicholas Island, May 11, and Eureka, May 18; Washington, Neah Bay, May 20, and Flattery Rock, June 2; and British Columbia, Courtenay, May 23, and Comox, June 4.

Fall migration.—Early dates of arrival in the fall, are: British Columbia, Okanagan, July 26; Washington, Clallam Bay, July 16, and Quillayute Needles, July 17; Oregon, Seal Rocks, July 22, and Crater Lake, July 27; California, Farallon Islands, July 13, Monterey Bay, July 14, and Santa Cruz, August 1; and Lower California, Los Coronados Islands, August 6, and Cedros Island, August 14.

Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska, St. Paul Island, October 4, and Unalaska, October 16; British Columbia, Okanagan, September 20; and Washington, Seattle, September 18, and Clallam Bay, September 19.

Egg Dates.—Alaska: One record, July 1, 1925.

HETEROSCELUS BREVIPES (Vieillot)

POLYNESIAN TATTLER

HABITS

Three specimens of this Asiatic sandpiper have been taken in the Pribilof Islands; the first was secured on St. Paul Island, October 4, 1911, by M. C. Marsh; the other two were taken by G. Dallas Hanna, on the same island, September 2, 1917, and September 17, 1919. These constitute the only North American records. It is not easily distinguished in life from the wandering tattler and so may have occurred much oftener on our extreme western coasts.

Dr. Leonard Stejneger (1885), who took an adult male on Bering Island, in the Commanders, May 28, 1882, devotes considerable space to showing that this is a species distinct from incanus; but some recent writers have treated it as a subspecies. The principal differences are that brevipes is somewhat smaller, has a shorter nasal groove, and has the tarsus scutellated instead of reticulated at the back; the belly and under tail coverts are pure white in all plumages, whereas in incanus these parts are barred in the nuptial plumage; and the upper tail coverts, which are nearly uniform gray in incanus; are distinctly barred with white. The structural differences would seem to warrant specific rank.

The Polynesian tattler is supposed to breed in eastern Siberia, from Lake Baikal to Kamchatka, but, so far as I know, its nest has never been found and nothing is known about its nesting habits, eggs, or young.

Plumages.—Except for the specific characters outlined above the plumages and molts are similar to those of the wandering tattler. In the juvenal plumage the feathers of the upper parts are notched with light buff or white; the upper tail coverts are tipped and irregularly barred with the same colors; the upper breast and flanks are suffused with light gray, more or less mottled on the chest; the tail feathers and wing coverts are tipped or notched or barred with pale buff or white; they are otherwise like winter adults.

This plumage is worn until September, when the body plumage, some of the tail feathers, and some of the wing coverts are molted, to produce the first winter plumage, which can be distinguished from the adult only by the retained tail feathers and wing coverts. In some birds a partial prenuptial molt produces a plumage which is nearly adult, but in others this molt is suppressed and a molt into the adult winter plumage comes later.

Adults have a complete postnuptial molt between July and January, and a partial prenuptial molt, involving the body plumage, the tail and some of the wing coverts, scapulars, and tertials.

Behavior.—The habits, and probably the food, of the Polynesian tattler are apparently similar to those of our American bird. Doctor Hanna (1920) says:

I had an opportunity to observe this bird for a while with two wandering tattlers in view at the time. The actions of the two species were practically the same. They feed very close to the sea on rocky shores and when disturbed fly lazily, rarely more than 100 yards. The wandering tattlers on this occasion appeared perceptibly larger than the Polynesian and the notes of the two were different. The latter uttered an irregular screech not of the same intensity or pitch, whereas the former gave its usual call, a series of 6 to 10 individual notes uttered in the same pitch and rapid succession, but each of shortening duration.

Winter.—This tattler migrates southward in winter through the Kurile Islands and Japan to the Malay Archipelago, the Philippines, and Australia. W. B. Alexander (1926) says of it in North Queensland:

This was the commonest species of sandpiper on the beaches at Cairns and Yarrabah early in September, feeding in small parties. The first were noted on September 1. They are easily recognized by their gray plumage and yellow legs, though the latter are not so brightly colored as those of the two species known in America as yellowlegs.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—Eastern Asia, Melanesia, and Australia; casual on the Pribilof Islands.

The Polynesian tattler breeds in eastern Siberia, from Lake Baikal to Kamchatka; in migration it passes through China, Japan, and the Philippine Islands to winter quarters in the Malay Archipelago and northern Australia (Queensland).

Casual records.—This species has been detected in North America on three occasions, all on St. Paul Island, of the Pribilof group, Alaska (October 4, 1911, September 2, 1917, and September 17, 1919).

PHILOMACHUS PUGNAX (Linnaeus)

RUFF

Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain

HABITS

The claim of the ruff to a place in the American list is a much stronger one than that of most of the Palaearctic species which figure in it, as it has occurred three times in Greenland, once in Canada, on many occasions in the eastern States, in Barbados, Guadeloupe, and South America.

Spring.—Apparently the ruff migrates chiefly by night and in this connection it is noticeable that the period of its greatest activity in the breeding season is during the twilight of the early morning hours. Naumann (1887) states that the first birds to arrive are the young of the preceding year, and that the adult males are the next to follow while they in turn are succeeded by the old females. Owing to the enormous development of the feathered ruff from which the species derives its names, the males are readily distinguished during the breeding season even in flight and on the ground can be recognized at almost any distance.

Courtship.—The breeding habits of the ruff are so remarkable that it is necessary to treat of them in considerable detail. When the males reach the breeding ground they are in full breeding plumage, the bare skin of the face being covered with bright yellow warts, while a disk of feathers protects the neck and two tufts project from each side of the head. The extraordinary variation in the coloring of these feather adornments renders it possible to identify individual birds, as it is rare to see two with even approximately similar coloring, and this enabled Mr. Selous (1906) to make the valuable observations which are referred to below.

Where ruffs are common, as in North Holland, one finds from time to time bare areas of ground where the grass has been worn away in patches. They are the playing grounds of the ruffs, and were known in England technically as “hills.” During the daytime they are resorted to from time to time by the male birds, which may often be seen sparring with one another, but the significance of these meetings was little understood until Edmund Selous (1906) spent a fortnight in the spring of 1906 in Holland, during which he concealed himself in a hide which commanded a good view of the “hill” at close quarters, and was often on the watch before daylight. The diary of his observations was first published in the Zoologist for 1906 and 1907, and is too lengthy and discursive to be reproduced here, but in the following condensed account most of the essential facts have been preserved. The “hill” under observation was roughly about 10 paces by 6, with 11 distinct patches where the grass had been worn bare, besides a couple of others less plainly marked. There were other similar “hills” in the neighborhood, all much alike, placed on dry ground, in the neighborhood of marshes. They are resorted to year after year, and bear traces of excrement from previous seasons, while the grass is much worn away owing to the presence of the birds. Some of the Dutch “hills” are quite close to or actually in the way of paths, and the birds when disturbed by passers-by will return to the ground within a few minutes. Like many other Dutch birds they show much indifference to the presence of man, owing to the fact that no shooting is permitted during the breeding season. On April 14 a single male was disturbed by Selous from the “hill” at 7 a. m. and did not return, but on the next day a flock of eight or nine birds arrived and at once began to fight, but not on the “hill.” It soon became evident that in order to be in place before the arrival of the birds it was necessary to get into hiding before dawn. By April 16 the “hill” was in regular use, each male resorting to the same stand and sitting there, from time to time rising and making a slight demonstration with erected tufts and ruff, sometimes followed by a slight sparring match with one of the other males, but when not engaged in fighting spending the time quite amicably side by side, in some cases almost touching. In the afternoon a similar state of things prevailed, but the proceedings were quieter and more subdued. When sparring the birds “would rush and leap high into the air against each other, rushing away and not leaping again as they came down,” and this activity was generally more pronounced when a reeve appeared on the ground. The other birds on occasions of this kind also rushed about in wild excitement, suddenly pulling themselves up with the head extended forward and remaining in this position motionless, perhaps then rushing in another direction and then gradually sinking down quickly. When a reeve arrived at the “hill,” where perhaps a dozen males were present, after the first wave of excitement had passed she would thread her way among the ruffs, which as she approached sank down to the ground by her side with bowed head. Her preference for one particular male was shown by halting at his side and gently nibbling with her bill the feathers at the back of his neck. If copulation followed, there was no interference on the part of the other males present, except perhaps occasionally by accident in the course of excited running to and fro.

After persistent watching it became evident that the attentions of the reeves were very unevenly distributed among the regular habitues of the “hill.” There were two conspicuously handsome males—one a bird with a golden-brown ruff and the other with a blue-black one—and these two seemed to be selected far more frequently than the other ruffs. The few attempts made by males to force the compliance of the female were quite unsuccessful. Perhaps it is due to this that attempts to pair between two male birds frequently took place and, strange to relate, even between two reeves also. Selection on the part of the hen birds apparently bore no relation to the fighting powers of the male, although one serious fight, which lasted some three or four minutes, took place, during which the two birds concerned fought like demons, but finally ceased by mutual consent. The two selected birds were, however, certainly among the finest and handsomest birds on the ground. While the stations were usually occupied by the same birds day after day, there were times when over 20 birds were present, so it is probable that males from other “hills” call in at times. While it was clear that one ruff paired with several reeves, it was much more difficult to prove that the reeves paired with more than one male, owing to their general similarity of appearance, though it is probable that this was the case. The following extract from Selous (1906) gives a good description of the characteristic sparring:

Each ruff has certainly a place of its own, and the most envenomed fights appear to me to result from one bird pitching down in another’s place when he flies in. The aggrieved bird instantly rushes at the intruder and there is a fight which may last for a longer or shorter time. The birds have then a perfectly frantic appearance. They kick, strike with their wings, and especially endeavor to bite or peck each other. This biting is very noticeable, the mandibles seeming to snap with rage. They leap commonly before they close and then continue to do so as a matter of course, the object seeming to be, as with other birds, to get above the adversary and strike down upon him with wings and feet and bill. Of course, when one bird is displaced by another, others are displaced also, leading to general commotion and, moreover, the mere anticipation of any fresh arrival is matter for excitement for every ruff on the ground.

Summarizing the results of Mr. Selous’ observations, it becomes evident that the “hills” are the pairing grounds to which both males and females resort, but the period of the greatest activity is during the early morning from about 3.30 a. m. onward. Each male has a definite place and the choice of a mate rests entirely with the female, the males adopting an attitude of supplication, crouching low with partially spread wings, tail and beak pointing to the ground. The hen marks her preference by nibbling the back of the neck of the prostrate male with her bill, and soon afterwards coition takes place, the surrounding males remaining usually quiescent. One reeve was seen to pair with two ruffs in succession and it is probable that she is polyandrous as the ruff is certainly polygamous. There seemed to be no connection between the fighting power of the males and the preference exercised so strikingly by the females, but, on the other hand, the favored ruffs were apparently always handsome and strikingly colored birds.

Nesting.—The reeve makes her nest within a reasonable distance of the “hill,” but not very close to it. Naumann (1887) says that it is never less than a hundred paces distant, and most of those which I have seen were within a quarter of a mile. In the Dutch water meadows the usual nesting site is among fine, thickly growing grass, where it is difficult to see unless one’s eye is caught by a glimpse of the nest hollow. In the marshes of Lapland, where vegetation is more backward, it may be found among clumps of sedge and rushes. It is built entirely of fine grasses, and would frequently be overlooked if it were not for the sight of the bird when flushed.

Eggs.—Normally four; sets of three are quite exceptional and are probably second or third layings. They are pyriform in shape, thin shelled, and, as is frequently the case with the eggs of waders, large for the size of the bird. The ground color varies from brownish yellow to pale olive brown as a rule, but occasionally has a greenish tinge, while varieties with a clear pale blue ground are not very scarce. The markings consist of spots and blotches of brown ranging from umber to dark sepia and ashy grey shellmarks, more numerous at the large end. White eggs have been recorded. The measurements of 143 eggs, chiefly by the writer, average 43.97 by 30.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 47.5 by 30.5, 43.2 by 32.1, 39.2 by 31.6, and 42.9 by 28 millimeters.

They are usually laid in central Europe during the latter half of May and early in June, occasionally in the second week of May. In northern Europe most eggs are found during the latter half of June. Only one brood is reared in the season.

Young.—Incubation is performed by the female alone. Naumann (1887) gives the incubation period as 17 to 19 days, but this is probably too low an estimate and recently Heinroth has recorded 27 days. From observations made by Mr. W. H. St. Quinten on young hatched in captivity they leave the nest very soon after hatching, apparently directly the down is dry. The reeve is a good mother, and I have seen one when flushed from eggs on the point of hatching run from the nest, flapping her wings in a helpless way as if unable to fly. Another bird was also seen trying to distract attention by running with every feather erect, looking more like some small mammal than a bird.

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

Food.—The ruff is mainly insectivorous, feeding largely on beetles (Coleoptera), chiefly the smaller species. Jäckel records specimens of the following genera: Agonum, Bembidium, Parnus, Cyclonotum, Sitones, Pisodes, Rhinoncus, Philhydrus. Weevils are also mentioned by Florence. Among the Orthoptera remains of grasshoppers were found by Slater. Neuroptera met with include caddis worms and cases (Phryganeidae) and larvae of Ephemera, Trichoptera (Limnophilus by Jäckel) who also records Naucoris (Hemiptera). It will be noted that most of the above are aquatic forms. Diptera are a staple food in the north, including larvae of Tipulidae and many small species. Of Mollusca, Slater records small fresh water bivalves, Collett worms (Lumbrici). In winter the food is more largely vegetable in character, though fresh water algae and seeds of Rumex have been recorded in summer. Rice is frequently found in birds killed in India and Mellor also found in seven cases nothing but durra grains (Sorghum) from 19 to 228 in number.

Voice.—The ruff is an extremely silent bird. One may live among them in the Dutch polders for weeks together in the spring, and never hear a sound from them, except a very low guttural or quacking note from a reeve when disturbed from a family of young. Naumann (1887) however describes a note kack, kack, kick, kack, which is probably the same as that which Slater writes as wick, repeated rapidly several times. Unless much persecuted it is confiding in its habits and pays little attention to the presence of men.

Enemies.—In England its extermination was primarily due to the reckless way in which the breeding stock was netted not only in autumn but also on arrival in spring on the “hilling” grounds, in order to be fattened for the table. Montagu’s account of the state of things in his day has been quoted at length in many books on British birds, so that it is not necessary to repeat it here. As Pennant spoke of 40 or 50 dozen birds being taken by a single fowler in a season it is not surprising that the stock was rapidly reduced to so low a level that in spite of belated efforts to protect the birds and their eggs, it has now practically disappeared. On the continent where it is still locally common it has to contend against other avian enemies, more especially the harriers (Circus), but also the goshawk, peregrine, and to some extent gulls and crows.

Fall.—The distinctive plumes of the male are shed in June and in July the autumn plumage is assumed even in the extreme north. The males begin to disappear from their breeding haunts in central Europe in late July and early August, while the females are said to leave in September.

Winter.—In their winter quarters ruffs are generally sociable and are to be met with in small flocks, which show a preference to fresh water marshes rather than the sea coast. In India and the Sudan the flooded fields are a great attraction and the staple food consists of grain.

DISTRIBUTION

Breeding range.—Formerly at many places in England from Northumberland southward, lingering until recently in Norfolk. Belgium, locally in North France, Holland, Denmark, North Germany, and Bavaria (Jäckel). Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic Republics, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia north to Kolguev, Waigatz, and Dolgoi and south to Bessarabia and Orenburg. In Asia, Siberia north to 72° on the Yenisei and east to the Lena and Kolyma valleys, south to Dauria, Turgai and Uralsk.

Winter range.—From Europe through Africa south to Cape Province, but scarce on passage in the Atlantic Islands. Asia, south to India, Ceylon (scarce), Burma, also recorded from China and Japan, Borneo (Labuan), etc.

Spring migration.—At the Straits of Gibraltar the northward movement begins in January and does not cease till May, but it is at its height in April. Some birds winter in the Mediterranean region and these have usually gone by the middle of April. In the eastern Mediterranean the passage begins in the Ionian Isles about March 15 and in Corfu in March.

Fall migration.—The return passage through southern Spain takes place in August and September, while in Greece, where it is less noticeable, it appears to take place toward the end of September.

Casual records.—The species has been rather frequently detected on the Atlantic coast of North America and (rarely) in the interior eastern States. Among these occurrences are: Ontario, Toronto Island, spring of 1882; Nova Scotia, near Halifax, May 27, 1892; New Brunswick, Grand Manan; Maine, Scarboro, April 10, 1870, Upton, September 8, 1874, and Camden, September 14, 1900; New Hampshire, Seabrook, September 23, 1907; Massachusetts, Newburyport, May 20, 1871, Chatham, September 11, 1880, and Nantucket, July, 1901; Rhode Island, Seaconnet Point, July 30, 1900, and Point Judith, August 31, 1903; New York, two on Long Island, one of which was taken May 18, 1868, and Freeport, September 27, 1914; New Jersey, Barnegat (Elliott collection); Virginia, Four-mile Run, September 3, 1894; North Carolina, Raleigh, May 6, 1892; Ohio, Licking Reservoir, November 11, 1872, and Columbus, April 23, 1878; and Indiana, English Lake, April 12, 1905.

It also has been taken in the Lesser Antilles, Barbados, previous to 1848; Colombia, probably between the Rio Negro and the Orinoco or adjacent regions; and Alaska, St. Paul Island, September 7, 1910. It is of rare occurrence in Japan (Yezo). There is one record from Iceland (Reykjavik, September, 1820).

Egg dates.—In Holland, 4 dates between May 7 and 14; 18 dates between May 15 and 31, 8 dates between June 1 and 22. In Lapland and North Russia, 16 dates between June 8 and 27.

BARTRAMIA LONGICAUDA (Bechstein)

UPLAND PLOVER

HABITS

Let us be thankful that this gentle and lovely bird is no longer called Bartramian sandpiper. It is a sandpiper truly enough, but one that has adopted the haunts and many of the habits of the plovers. To those who love the rolling or hilly pasture lands of the east or the broad flat prairies of the middle west, it will always be known as the upland or “field plover” or “prairie dove,” or, more affectionately, as “quailie.” It is a characteristic bird of the prairies and wide open grassy fields, where it once abounded in enormous numbers. Excessive shooting for the market, where it was much in demand, reduced its numbers to an alarmingly low ebb. Dr. Thomas S. Roberts (1919) says that, in Minnesota,

Fifty years ago it was present all through the summer, everywhere in open country, in countless thousands. Now it is nearing extinction. Here and there an occasional breeding pair may yet be found, but they are lonely occupants of the places where their ancestors dwelt in vast numbers.

And with the disappearing prairies have gone these and other interesting birds that made the wide open places so attractive. When I visited the Quill Lake region in Saskatchewan in 1917, I found that practically all the prairies had been burned over or cultivated; the long-billed curlew had entirely disappeared, though recently abundant there, and I saw only one pair of chestnut-collared longspurs; but some of the upland plover were adapting themselves to the new conditions and were nesting in cultivated fields, much as the spotted sandpipers and the killdeer have learned to nest in grain fields and truck gardens. Perhaps such adaptation may be the salvation of a useful and attractive species. Some observers report it as already increasing in numbers.

Spring.—W. H. Hudson (1922) describes the beginning of the spring migration from the pampas of South America, as follows:

The north migration as a rule begins about the 15th of February and continues to the 15th of March, and it is at the beginning of the former month that the disquiet becomes noticeable. Now on one occasion the season of unrest began much earlier, in the month of January, increased from day to day and week to week in the most extraordinary way, and continued to about the middle of March before the birds began to fly north, the migration continuing through March. On any day in February when out riding I would see from time to time a bird spring up with its wild alarm cry and flight, and after going a little distance drop down again. Then in a minute or two another, farther away, would start up with its cry; and sitting still and watching and listening, I could see the birds rise up here and there all over the plain—rise with a cry, then settle down again; and if one rode a 100 miles to any side he would find it the same everywhere. The birds were in a continual state of agitation, of fear; and though this state began so much sooner than usual, the actual migration did not begin till a month later than the usual time.

Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1926), writing from the same general region, says:

At Tucuman, Tucuman, five were heard early in the evening of April 1 as they passed over the city traveling due north during a slow rain accompanied by heavy mist. On the night of April 5 under similar conditions an extensive flight of shore birds began at a quarter of 10 and continued until half past 11. During this period J. L. Peters, with whom I was traveling at the time, and I identified the call of the upland plover from 38 individuals. The birds were in company with yellowlegs, solitary sandpipers, and a few golden plover. How many passed unheard in the darkness there was no way to know. The calling of these birds when in northward migration was a phenomenon of common knowledge in Tucuman during that season in the year, but all commented upon the fact that the birds seemed to have decreased greatly in abundance in recent years.

The earliest birds reach Texas and Louisiana early in March. Illustrating the abundance of this species in Texas 40 years ago, G. B. Benners (1887) says:

At the former place we found immense flocks on the prairie, and they were so tame that the flock would part in the middle and let us drive between them. We often shot enough birds while going through a flock in this way to last for several meals. When they thought we did not see them they would stand perfectly still, and being the same color as their surroundings they easily escaped detection.

From there the main migration route seems to be directly northward between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.

Fred J. Pierce writes to me:

On my rambles over the rolling country of Buchanan County, Iowa, in the early spring, I usually hear the Bartramian sandpiper and see the small speck high in the sky that I know is his form. A damp, cloudy morning seems to be the preferred time for the bird’s sky circling, but it may be found frequently in the early morning, too. Cloudy days are the days which it enjoys most, it appears.

Edward S. Thomas tells me that he has seen it in Ohio as early as March 26, but that the average date of arrival is April 2. It is not recorded east of Cuba in the spring, but some birds migrate across from Yucatan to Cuba and Florida and then up the Atlantic coast. When this species bred more commonly in New England it used to arrive in April, but now it is very rare here.

Courtship.—The courtship flight song of the upland plover is well described in some notes sent to me by Fred J. Pierce, as follows:

The bird’s song is very interesting, but it is given little attention in books relating to ornithology. On still wings, these large birds circle slowly about, usually so high as to be mere specks in the sky, and give their shrill, penetrating whistle, which will carry nearly a mile, depending upon the wind and the altitude of the whistler. First there are a few notes sounding like water gurgling from a large bottle, then comes the loud whip-whee-ee-you, long drawn out and weirdly thrilling. When I first heard this strange cry I at once thought of some species of hawk as being the author of it, and I have known others to think the same thing. It is too loud and penetrating a cry to be attributed to one of the sandpipers. I have heard the bird whistling in this manner as late as July, but I do not believe that this is a common practice. On more than one occasion I have seen the bird, after circling at such height as to be almost out of sight, close its wings and shoot to earth like a falling stone. This thrilling performance is similar to that of the prairie horned lark, which takes a headfirst drop to earth when it has finished singing its contribution to the usual spring morning chorus.

Another pretty version of the courtship is given by Katharine U. Hunter (1916) thus:

It was the springtime (1916). The prolonged wail, vague and sad, of the plovers rose in our upland pasture. I watched them carry on their odd courtship; hopping toward each other, twittering, flying away, then repeating it all again, the hopping, twittering, and retreating. Ungainly, spirit-voiced birds! Once from out the black, vibrant night came the eerie, long-drawn whistle of a plover lover.

Nesting.—My first upland plover’s nest was found on May 25, 1900, near the western end of Marthas Vineyard, Mass. The birds were still fairly common here in those days and there were at least three pairs of them breeding in this and adjoining pastures. The nest was on a knoll in a sheep pasture where the grass had been cropped short except for scattered tufts, where it grew from 7 to 10 inches high, offering the necessary concealment. In one of these tufts, about a foot in diameter, a hollow had been scratched, 4 or 5 inches in diameter and nearly 3 inches deep; it was lined with small bits of dried grass and held four handsome eggs.

Since then I have found several nests in Saskatchewan. These nests were all similarly located on the dry, grassy prairies, slight hollows in the ground, about 4 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep, generally well hidden in rather long, thick grass; they were lined with pieces of dry grass, and the growing grass was artfully arched over them for protection. The birds usually sat very closely; once we drove over a nest, flushing the bird under the wagon; and several times we were able to part the grass over the nest or even touch the bird before she left. She usually ran or fluttered away for a few feet and then ran about near us, with her long neck stretched up above the grass, watching us and uttering her quip-ip-ip-ip notes of protest.

Nests found by others have been similarly described, but Prof. W. B. Barrows (1912) says that—

in Michigan, it frequently nests in wet grounds, although the nest itself is usually placed on one of the drier spots. We have seen the birds nesting in two instances in good snipe bogs where the mud was ankle deep and dry spots few and far between.

Prof. William Rowan (1926) says that in Alberta—

the nests found were very variable in make-up and situation. One had no lining whatever and consisted of a mere scrape in the ground. This was in a hollow right in the open on a huge sandy area with but sparse vegetation, on which long-billed curlews (Numenius americanus) were nesting. Others were in clumps of rough brush, and this is probably typical for this locality. Another was in long grass. The most elaborate lining noted consisted of leaves, bents, and small twigs. One clutch of five was found and one of three, the latter no doubt incomplete, as the bird was not about and the eggs were fresh.

Edward R. Ford has the following observation on the selection of a nesting site:

As in the case of the larger ground-nesting birds, whose nests have little architectural pretension, the upland plover often deposits the first egg before any nest-building operations have been begun. It is probable that the physiological condition of the female urges her to seek a location generally favorable to the successful rearing of a brood; but the exact site of the nest may be in some measure accidental. It is not often that one may be fortunate enough to come upon the kind of evidence best calculated to prove a theory of animal behavior, but it happened once that we found a single egg of the upland plover, unbetrayed by the presence of the parent and hidden deep in the grass. It might have been an egg prematurely laid and, therefore, not likely to receive further parental attention. If it had been a meadow lark’s egg, for example, that would have been the conclusion and the facts of experience would have borne it out. But here was the chance to test a theory and so, while not surprised, we were gratified, three days later, to flush a bird from the spot marked as the location of the single egg and to find there the full complement of four. About these the dry grass had taken hemispherical form and, with the addition of loose material and by reason of the impression made by the eggs themselves, as well as by the body of the parent, there now existed a well-defined if simple nest.

Eggs.—The upland plover lays four eggs, rarely five, and perhaps sometimes only three. These are ovate to short ovate in shape, less pointed than most shore birds’ eggs; and they have only a slight gloss. In the commonest types the ground colors vary from “light pinkish cinnamon” to “pale pinkish buff”; in others they vary from “cartridge buff” or “pale olive buff” to greenish white. They are more or less evenly spotted with small spots of various shades of dark browns or reddish browns, and usually with small underlying spots, rarely large blotches, of “ecru drab” or “pale drab gray.” The measurements of 66 eggs in the United States National Museum average 45 by 32.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 51 by 33, 48 by 35, 41.5 by 32.5, and 48 by 29.5 millimeters.

Young.—The incubation period is said to be 17 days, but this needs confirmation. Both sexes share in the duties of incubation and care of the young. Katharine U. Hunter (1916) says:

The birds relieved each other at the nest—a true division of domestic cares: one bird would alight at a long distance, fold his wings, utter no cry, and, with head held low, walk through the grass, squatting lower and lower till finally he disappeared on the nest; then the female would retreat with the same caution, not spreading her wings till far from the eggs.

Doctor Coues (1874) describes the behavior of young birds and their parents very well, as follows:

Young birds are abroad late in June—curious little creatures, timid and weak, led about by their anxious parents, solicitous for their welfare, and ready to engage in the most unequal contests in their behalf. When half grown, but still in the down, the little creatures have a curious clumsy, top-heavy look; their legs look disproportionately large, like those of a young colt or calf; and they may be caught with little difficulty, as they do not run very well. I once happened upon a brood, perhaps two weeks old, rambling with their mother over the prairie. She sounded the alarm, to scatter her brood, but not before I had secured one of them in my hand. I never saw a braver defense attempted than was made by this strong-hearted though powerless bird, who, after exhausting her artifices to draw me in pursuit of herself, by tumbling about as if desperately wounded, and lying panting with outstretched wings on the grass, gave up hope of saving her young in this way, and then almost attacked me, dashing close up and retreating again to renew her useless onslaught. She was evidently incited to unusual courage by the sight of her little one struggling in my hand. At this downy stage the young birds are white below, finely mottled with black, white, and rich brown above; the feet and under mandible are light colored; the upper mandible is blackish.

Although these tattlers are generally dispersed over the prairies during the summer, yet they affect particular spots by preference. Away from the river valleys, such spots are the numerous depressions of rolling prairie, often of great extent, which are moist or even watery at some seasons, and where the vegetation is most luxuriant. Here they gather almost into colonies. Riding into some such spot in July, when the young birds are being led about by their parents, some old bird more watchful than the rest, or nearest to the person approaching, gives the alarm with a loud outcry, the young scatter and hide, and all the old birds are soon on wing; hovering in the air, often at a great height, crossing each other’s path, and ceaselessly vociferating their displeasure. I have often seen a dozen or twenty overhead at once, all from a little spot only a few acres in extent. Later in the season, when all the summer’s broods are on wing, they make up into flocks, often of great extent, and old and young together assume the ordinary routine of their lives. They leave these northern regions early. I saw none after the forepart of September.

Plumages.—In the downy young upland plover, the crown, back, and rump are prettily variegated, marbled, or mottled, with black, “wood brown,” “pinkish buff,” and white, with no definite pattern. The sides of the head and the entire under parts are pale buff or buffy white, whitest on the belly and throat. A narrow, median frontal stripe and a few spots on the sides of the head are black.

The juvenal plumage is much like that of the summer adult, but it is much more buffy, especially about the head and neck, which are “cinnamon-buff” or “light ochraceous buff”; the crown is nearly solid brownish black, or with only a narrow, median, buffy line; the back and scapulars are brownish black with broad “cinnamon” edgings and with little or no definite barring on the scapulars; the lesser wing coverts are sepia with “cinnamon-buff” edgings, broader than in the adult; and the median coverts are sepia, broadly tipped, and notched with “cinnamon-buff” and with a subterminal spot or bar of dark sepia. This plumage is partially molted in August and September, producing the first winter plumage, which is like the adult, except that the juvenal flight feathers and most of the wing coverts are retained. At the first prenuptial molt young birds apparently become indistinguishable from adults.

Adults have a complete postnuptial molt, beginning with the body plumage in August and ending with the wings in December and January. Their prenuptial molt in spring involves nearly everything but the wings. The winter plumage is less buffy than the spring, more grayish above and whiter below, with paler edgings, but the color pattern is about the same.

Food.—The feeding habits of the upland plover are almost wholly beneficial. It is one of our most useful birds; living, as it does, in grass lands and cultivated fields, it destroys vast numbers of grasshoppers, locusts, and other injurious insects. W. L. McAtee (1912) writes:

From its habits the upland plover would naturally be expected to have a closer relation to agriculture than most sandpipers, and such proves to be the case. Almost half its food is made up of grasshoppers, crickets, and weevils, all of which exact heavy toll from cultivated crops. Among the weevils eaten are the cottonboll weevil; greater and lesser clover-leaf weevils; clover-root weevils; Epicaerus imbricatus, which is known to attack almost all garden and orchard crops; cowpea curculios; Tanymecus confertus, an enemy of sugar beets; Thecesternus humeralis, which has been known to injure grapevines; and bill bugs. Thecesternus alone composes 3.65 per cent of the seasonal food of the 163 stomachs examined, and bill bugs constitute 5.83 per cent. No fewer than 8 species of bill bugs were identified from the stomachs. These weevils injure, often seriously, such crops as corn, wheat, barley, and rye, as well as forage plants of many kinds. The upland plover further makes itself useful to the farmer by devouring leaf beetles, including the grapevine colaspis, southern corn leaf-beetle, and other injurious species; wireworms and their adult forms, the click beetles; white grubs and their parents, the May beetles; cutworms, army worms; cotton worms; cotton cutworms; sawfly larvae; and leather-jackets or cranefly larvae. They befriend cattle by eating horseflies and their larvae, and cattle ticks. They eat a variety of other animal forms, such as moths, ants, and other Hymenoptera, flies, bugs, centipedes and millipeds, spiders, snails, and earthworms. Practically 97 per cent of the food consists of animal matter, chiefly of injurious and neutral forms. The vegetable food comprises the seeds of such weed pests as buttonweed, foxtail grass, and sand spurs, and hence is also to the credit of the bird.

J. M. Bates (1907) says that, in Nebraska, “after the wheat is cut, and during migration, it frequents the wheat stubble and gorges itself with the waste grain.” He has also seen it in the rye stubble in Connecticut. But this does no harm, of course.

Behavior.—When traveling the upland plover’s flight is swift and strong, well sustained on its long, pointed wings; and when migrating, by day or by night, it flies at a great height. In the autumn it is wary and difficult to approach, as it jumps up at long range and flies rapidly away for a long distance. But in the spring its flight is quite different, more leisurely; it seems to drift along so high up in the sky as to be almost invisible; it might pass unnoticed, were it not for its flute like notes. Edwin Sandys (1904) has described this very well, as follows:

This drifting flight is characteristic of the present species, and it usually ends in a diving slant earthward, which is performed without any perceptible motion of the wings. A few feet from the ground the long, beautiful, easy descent is gently checked, and the bird alights as quietly as though it had stooped only a yard or so instead of hundreds or thousands of feet. For a few seconds after alighting the bird is apt to keep its wings considerably elevated above its back, and the brief pose in this position is particularly attractive. Then the airy fans are sedately furled. This pretty trick of keeping the wings spread as if for a momentary study of how they should be correctly folded is not peculiar to this species. Others of its near and remote kin go through the same dainty evolution, although, perhaps, without the air of studied care which is characteristic of Bartram’s sandpiper.

On its breeding grounds its flight is different again; it often flies along slowly and evenly, at a low elevation, 15 or 20 feet above the ground, on quickly vibrating wings, pouring out its liquid, rolling trills or flute like notes, a delightful performance; or when flushed from its nest it flies off close to the ground with short, rapid strokes of its down-curved wings, as if using only its wing tips, suggesting the flight of the spotted sandpiper. On a windy day it may occasionally be seen to soar or hover on quivering wings like a small falcon.

On the ground its movements are ploverlike, running swiftly and stopping suddenly. It runs gracefully through the grass with its long neck stretched up to watch the pursuer; or, crouching down, it runs rapidly away and disappears in the grass. It alights frequently on fences, telegraph poles, stumps, or rocks to watch the intruder and scold at him. It is seldom seen near water, and I doubt if anyone has ever seen it swimming. It is a gentle bird at all times and lives harmoniously with its neighbors on its breeding grounds, but it does not seem to associate with other species elsewhere.

Voice.—The voice of the upland plover is one of its greatest charms; once heard in its perfection it will never be forgotten; and it often serves to identify the species when the bird can not be seen. W. H. Hudson (1922) has referred to it very attractively, as follows:

Lying awake in bed, I would listen by the hour to that sound coming to me from the sky, mellowed and made beautiful by distance and the profound silence of the moonlit world, until it acquired a fascination for me above all sounds on earth, so that it lived ever after in me; and the image of it is as vivid in my mind at this moment as that of any bird call or cry, or any other striking sound heard yesterday or but an hour ago. It was the sense of mystery it conveyed which so attracted and impressed me—the mystery of that delicate, frail, beautiful being, traveling in the sky, alone, day and night, crying aloud at intervals as if moved by some powerful emotion, beating the air with its wings, its beak pointing like the needle of the compass to the north, flying, speeding on its 7,000-mile flight to its nesting home in another hemisphere.

The most beautiful and striking note heard on its breeding grounds is a sweet, mellow, rolling trill, uttered as the bird flies along at a low elevation or while perched on a fence post or even on the ground; it is evidently a love note. Prof. Lynds Jones (1903) has described it very well, as follows:

The rolling cry is not unlike the rolling call of a tree toad, but of a different quality and caliber, which makes it unmistakable. The whistle is partly double, the first part passing upward nearly half an octave, terminating abruptly there, the second part beginning where the first began and rapidly swelling through nearly or quite an octave, then gradually falling again and decreasing in volume to the close, several tones above the beginning. The first part of the whistle is usually rattling or trilled, and sometimes the trill is carried to the end, but oftener it becomes a clear whistle before the culmination and continues clear to the end. Tre-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e, tre-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-p; or tr-r-r-r-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-p. Often the whistled part is never reached, but the call stops as if interrupted by some threatened danger.

The alarm note, as the bird flies away from its nest or as it runs about scolding at the intruder, is an emphatic and rapidly uttered quip-ip-ip-ip. It also has a rich, musical note, which sounds like qua-a-ily, from which one of its local names is taken. This and a modified form of its rolling trill are often heard on migration, a prolonged, mournful, mellow whistle, drifting down out of the sky, more like the whistling of the wind than a bird’s voice.

Field marks.—The upland plover should be easily recognized by its size and shape; its slender, graceful form, its delicate head and neck, and its long tail are characteristic. In flight its long, pointed wings, its dark rump, and its barred, whitish, outer tail feathers are good field marks. Its manner of flight and its notes are distinctive.

Fall.—About the middle of July, or even earlier, old and young birds begin to gather into flocks, move off their breeding grounds, and start on their fall migrations. The migratory flights are made mainly during the night or early evening. At this season the birds are much wilder, the leisurely behavior of spring and summer has gone, their flight is much swifter and stronger, and it is difficult to approach the loose, detached flocks which stop to feed during the day on the hoards of grasshoppers and locusts which are then to be found in the upland pastures and dry meadows. During wet spells they do not stop, but in hot, dry weather they linger to feast on the abundant insect life and become very fat. We used to expect them in Massachusetts about the last of July, but they were most abundant in August and early September. The general movement is southward, through the interior and the Atlantic Coast States and through the West Indies to South America. The earliest birds reach Louisiana and Texas early in July and arrive in Peru and Argentina in September. The last birds leave their breeding range before the end of September.

Game.—The upland plover is, or was, a fine game bird. Over 40 years ago, in my younger shooting days, these birds were still fairly common in Massachusetts, but it was no easy job to make a fair day’s bag; it meant tramping many miles over rolling, or hilly pasture lands, where the wary birds rose at long range and flew swiftly away for a long distance. One had to shoot quickly and accurately to kill his bird, and perhaps chase one for several miles before getting even a long shot at him. It was a real sporting proposition with the chances much in the bird’s favor. The birds would not come to decoys, nor to the gunner’s whistle and a dog was utterly useless except to retrieve birds. A thorough knowledge of the ground and of the birds’ fly-ways sometimes brought results, when we could hide behind some fence or stone wall and wait for the birds to fly over. Even meager results were well worth while, for we had plenty of good exercise and the birds made delicious morsels for the table.

A more common and more successful, though less sportsmanlike, method of shooting them is thus described by Edwin Sandys (1904):

A popular method in many parts of the West is to drive to the birds in a buckboard, or other convenient rig. For a man who can shoot well in the sitting posture this is an excellent plant, as the birds almost invariably will permit a wheeled conveyance to approach within comparatively easy range. A clever driver is a valuable assistance. Such a man never heads his team directly at the birds, but drives as though he merely intended to pass them by. A good judge of distance in the open can in this way edge within comfortable range of plover which, if the driver steered straight for them, or with the gun attempted to dismount and stalk, would at once make off. I have varied the shooting from the seat by walking at the horse’s shoulders. The plover do not appear to notice the extra pair of legs. This sometimes gives the prettiest kind of shooting. All one has to do is to judge when sufficiently close, then stand still with the gun at the ready, while the team moves steadily ahead. Usually the plover will take wing the moment the foot-man is uncovered; but should they not, the man can gain a few yards by briskly walking toward them. I have occasionally stalked them by keeping close to the shoulder of a steady old horse that was indifferent in the matters of smoke and loud reports.