SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



of individuals and of species. More than all 

 this they become so tame and so much at home, 

 that one can watch at close range traits and 

 habits that are rarely seen on the open 

 beaches, where the wary bird is constantly on 

 the alert lest it lose its life. 



The piping plover, meloda, has one of the 

 sweetest and saddest notes I know,— a clear 

 double whistle. It generally prefers to hunt 

 its food in the dry sand, which it matches 

 closely in color. 



While the piping plover matches the dry 

 sand, the ring-neck or semipalmated plover 

 matches the wet sand where it generally hunts, 

 and its notes are cheerful and business-like in 

 comparison with those of its piping cousin. 

 It is a robust bird, always on the alert for food 

 and for the prowling gunner, and it still holds 

 its own in considerable numbers. An advan- 

 tage that plovers have over sandpipers is that 

 they scatter when they alight on the sand to 

 feed, while sandpipers hurry along in close 

 ranks. Consequently the pot-hunter spends 

 many anxious moments waiting for a chance 

 to get a large number of plovers in a line with 

 his aim, and often misses them altogether as 

 the frightened birds take wing. As we have 



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