1902] Saunders Birds of Sable Island, N.S. 25 



tunity, and in the winter a systematic attempt is made to kill them 

 by traps, poison and the gun. Their numbers are now very much 

 reduced, and the good work still proceeds, so that there is quite a 

 possibility of their utter extermination within a few years. 



After the terns and sparrows, the most abundant bird is the 

 semi-palmated plover, well known through most parts of the 

 country in the migration, but which is absent in the breeding 

 season, except in the more remote regions of the north. Sable 

 Island is perhaps its most southerly breeding ground, and this 

 probability made the study of this bird very interesting. Along 

 the edges of the large inland lake there is cast up in the spring a 

 fringe of eel grass, varying from one to four feet in width. In 

 this eel grass the plover chooses to place its nest, and it seemed 

 to be of no use whatever to look anywhere else. Each pair exca- 

 vates three or more nets as a rule, and sometimes lines them as 

 well, using the same material among which it is built. When a 

 person following the shore c imes to a pair of these plovers, all he 

 has to do is to follow along this fringe of eel grass and search 

 carefully for a depression, where the nest may be; and my experi- 

 ence was that where one hollow was found, close by would be 

 several others. But I was too early for the main nesting season, 

 and saw but two nests with eggs. The male bird has a curious 

 two-syllabled call, which it gives in rapid succession while on the 

 wing Its flight at this time, as well noted by Dr. Dwight, closely 

 resembles that of the night hawk, and may extend over two or 

 three minutes at a time with constant calling. 



THE BELTED PIPING PLOVER. 



The only other plover breeding upon the island is the belted 

 piping plover. This is the western variety of the piping plover, 

 and Dr. Dwight noted as one of the surprises of Sable Island that 

 this biid, whose main breeding ground is on the western plains, 

 should be found so far to the east, while the eastern part of the 

 continent is almost entirely inhabited by the other variety. These 

 birds excavate their nest-hollow in the bare, open sand, which 

 makes them exceedingly difficult to find, as the bird leaves the 

 nest at sight of an intruder. One such that I found wts on a bare 

 patch of sand in the mouth of a gully, which the wind had cut 



