UPLAND GAME BIRDS US 



281. MOUNTAIN PLOVER. — Poda.socrfs montanm. 



Family : The Plovers. 



Length: 8.00-9.00. 



Adults in Summer: Upper parts grayish brown ; under parts buffy ; a 



white baud across forehead and over the eye ; front of ci'ovvn and 



lores black. 

 Adults in IV inter : Witliout distinct black or white on head. 

 Yonny : Similar to winter adults, but general tone light yellowish 



brown or buffy. 

 Geogrcvpldcal Distribution: United States bordering the Pacific; in 



winter as far south as Santa Ana. 

 Breeding Range : Interior of the United States from Texas to JMontana. 

 Breeding Season : June and July. 

 Nest: Anywhere on the open prairie ; a depression in the ground, thinly 



lined with grass. 

 Eggs: 3; light buffy olive, thickly speckled with lavender, brown, and 



black. Size 1.4.') X Ml. 



Throughout the interior plains of California Avest of 

 the Sierra Nevada the Mountain Plover is a coriimon 

 winter resident. It can be easily recognized by its large 

 size, and by the absence of rings on throat and breast. 

 Mountain Plover is one of the many misnomers, for 

 although called by this name, the bird loves the prairies 

 and treeless plains, and is never found at great altitudes. 

 Unlike most plovers, it seems to shun the water ; even 

 in California it is not found ;dong tlie beaches wiiere 

 its relatives feed, but hunts grasshoppers and terrestrial 

 insects in tiie drier inland meadows. Its nest consists of 

 a few grasses scratched together in a spot exposed to 

 wind and weather; and here the female broods for nine- 

 teen days. As soon as the (U>wn is dry on the ciiicks, 

 they scramble off at their mother's heels, and in twenty- 

 four hours are catching bugs for themselves. 



