196 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



north to Nova Scotia and Alaska, breeding throughout most of its North 

 American range: migrating in winter southward as far as Brazil, Peru (and 

 Argentina (W. 13. B.). Occasional in Europe. 



This beautiful bird is one of the species which was formerly abundant 

 throughout the state, but has become distressingly scarce within the last 

 twenty years. Even ten years ago it was fairly common in suitable places 

 throughout the Lower Peninsula, but at present we know of but few places 

 where it breeds, and its voice during migrations is now seldom heard. 



In the eastern states it frequents upland fields and hilly pasture lands 

 by preference, and usually, if not always, nests in such places; but in 

 Michigan, it frequently nests in wet grounds, although the nest itself is 

 usually placed on one of the dryer spots. We have seen the birds nesting 

 in two instances in good snipe-bogs where the mud was ankle deep and dry 

 spots few and far between. Probably it still nests in favorable localities 

 throughout the state, but only in small numbers. 



As it is one of the early fall migrants, most of the birds leaving for the 

 south before the middle of September, one would naturally suppose that it 

 would have increased in numbers during the protection afforded by the 

 game law which did not allow the shooting of Snipe, Woodcock or shore 

 birds until October. So far as we can learn, however, there has been no 

 increase in numbers and it has continued to decrease in most localities. At 

 Plymouth, Michigan, Mr. Jas. B. Purdy states that it was formerly unknown, 

 but has appeared and increased in numbers recently though still far from 

 abundant. 



It is an exceptionally good table bird and a favorite with amateur sports- 

 men, though it is very shy as a rule and does not decoy readily. Its mellow, 

 plover-like call when migrating is well known and characteristic, but it 

 has another and entirely different note when nesting, which Dr. Gibbs 

 accurately describes as "much like the twitter of the tree frog." 



The nest is placed on the ground, and the eggs are buffy white, spotted 

 with brown and purplish gray, and average 1.79 by 1.30 inches. They 

 are commonly l^id during the latter half of May, but occasionally sets are 

 found in June, and it is possible that second broods are sometimes reared. 



This is one of the few North American birds which extends its migration 

 to southern South America, being often extraordinarily abundant on the 

 pampas of Argentina in November, December, and January. Both at that 

 time and during our northern summer it feeds extensively upon grass- 

 hoppers and is one of the species which forms a natural check upon this 

 scourge in some places. It is doubtful whether it is abundant enough in 

 Michigan now to do much good in this way, but during the "grasshopper 

 years" in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska the Upland Plover or "Prairie 

 Pigeon " was reported in scores of places as being one of the most important 

 enemies of the grasshopper or Rocky Mountain locust. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult: Top of head brownish black with an indistinct median stripe of buff; chin and 

 upper throat white, rest of head and neck light brown or buff, streaked with dark brown 

 or blackish; back, scapulars and wing-coverts, mottled black, brown and buff, most of 

 the feathers black centrally, then brown, and with yellowish edges; rump and upper tail- 

 coverts glossy black, without bars or spots; outer primary sharply barred with black and 

 white, its shaft pure white; middle tail-feathers olive, barred with black, the others barred 

 with light buff and black, tipped with white and conspicuously spotted with black near 

 the ends; under parts pale buffy, fading to nearly pure white on belly and under tail-coverts, 

 the lower neck sharply streaked with tear-shaped spots of black, wdiich become arrow- 



