446 ZOOLOGY BIRDS. 



Middle and Southern Provinces, it occurs perhaps in greater numbers 

 during the migrations than in summer, yet everywhere some remain to 

 breed, passing the summer on the sandy shores of the large rivers, or of 

 the small creeks where the supply of water, however small, is sufficient to 

 last through the dry season, and thus furnish a home for the little crusta- 

 ceans, worms, and insects which live only in such places, and which furnish 

 sustenance for this plover, as well as others of its tribe. Unlike most of 

 the plover tribe, it is not gregarious; although in the fall a dozen or more may 

 often be seen frequenting the same locality, their association is only partial, 

 and dependent upon the abundance of food. Upon being alarmed, the 

 individuals scatter without regard to each other. Not offering any special 

 attraction to the gunner in the West, they have as yet learned little of the 

 fear which has. grown to be instinctive in some others of the family, and in 

 the wilderness appear to have no dread of man, but will run about within 

 a few feet of any chance observer. It is quite different in Florida, where, 

 having been much persecuted the gunners, like the other waders, they have 

 learned the range of a gun to a nicety, and can always be trusted to look 

 well after their own safety. They are very noisy, and easily angered, 

 giving vent to their wrath in a great variety of harsh notes, of which the 

 most common and best known are the syllables kill-deer, kill-deer, repeated 

 as they run swiftly along the ground or fly about. The eggs are deposited 

 usually in June, in a slight hollow, often scratched in the sand along a 

 river bank. I have found the young just from the nest June 14. The 

 old birds are devoted parents, and, when the safety of their offspring is 

 threatened, will venture almost within the grasp of the pursuer, squatting 

 in the sand, feigning a broken wing or leg, and thus endeavoring to lead 

 away the enemy, all the while pleading in undertone for pity. They are 

 resident in Utah and to the southward, though their migration is more or 

 less complete, and perhaps the individuals found here in winter are not the 

 same ones that occupy the region in summer, but are those reared farther 

 north, whose hardier nature renders them able to endure a more rigorous 

 winter climate. 



