64 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Aug. -Sept. 



if so whether it led, as I fear, to her losing her life as is so often 

 the ultimate fate of wild animals, particularly the small and 

 weak ones that are led to place reliance upon mankind. 



As soon as domestic ties are over for the season our plovers 

 pack up, so to speak, and make their way southward. The 

 first matured are ready to depart quite early in Jul}- and after 

 that date they may be heard nightly calling to each other as 

 they move rapidly away. By the middle of August nearlv all 

 have vanished though a few belated individuals remain into 

 September, occasionally as late as the third week. 



There is a strange circumstance in connection with the 

 autumn flights in comparison with their northward movements 

 in spring. In the spring they come up in a leisurely manner, 

 often pausing in their wing beats to utter their peculiar but 

 pleasing song. At this time too their forward movements seem 

 to be largely controlled by the tips of the wings, indeed this is 

 quite a characteristic of the spring flight. But in autumn thev 

 have quite another type of flight; then they seem to use the 

 whole wing and fly much more like a snipe and like that bird 

 are remarkably rapid in their movements. The sailing motion 

 has all gone, and instead of the somewhat slow moving bird of 

 the breeding season we have one that for quickness can vie with 

 many of the fastest, and but for the cries, method of alighting, 

 and vesture, would not be recognized as the same species. 

 It is, no doubt, this strange change of habit that has given the 

 bird a different reputation in the south, where it is spoken of as 

 being very shy and difficult to approach. Yet another peculiar- 

 ity is the fact that in the spring they are almost without exception 

 day fliers, having a preference for the morning, while in autumn 

 thev seldom migrate at any other time but night. This curiously 

 enough is just the opposite to the habits of night hawks which 

 in spring move northward in the evening or at night, and south 

 in autumn during the afternoon. 



It seems unnecessary to go extensively into the food habits 

 of Upland Plovers. I have observed them time after time 

 picking up locusts and have also actually seen them chase a 

 moving stone that was thrown at them, under the impression 

 that it also belonged to the order Orthoptera. 



Some years ago owing to a controversy on the subject of 

 food habits, relating more particularly to the capabilities of 

 plovers being able to devour large grasshoppers, I secured a few 

 specimens of the bird and examined them; my brother did like- 

 wise and we found them literally crammed with hoppers both 

 large and small. The number they consume in a day must be 

 enormous, and as they continue this diet throughout the season 

 of their sojourn with us and do no appreciable harm their preser- 



