264 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



PIPING PLOVER 



^gialitis meloda (Urd) 



A. O. U. Number 277 



Other Names. — Ringneck ; Pale Ringneck ; White 

 Ringneck ; Belted Piping Plover ; Western Piping 

 Plover; Clam Bird; Mourning Bird; Beach Plover; 

 Sand Plover. 



General Description. — Length, 7 inches. Upper 

 parts, color of dry sand; under parts, snowy white. 

 'fdcs. not Zi'cbbcd : hind toe missing; bill short. 



Color. — Forehead, white ; a black band on front 

 of crown from eye to eye; lores, streak behind eye, 

 chin, throat, sides of head, a half collar around back of 

 neck, and entire under parts, pure snowy white ; crown 

 and upper parts, very pale ashy-brozvn ; a black band 

 on upper breast tending to encircle neck but not meet- 

 ing; an indistinct dusky streak behind eye; primaries, 

 dusky with white spaces at base ; secondaries and 

 greater coverts, mostly white; long inner secondaries, 

 similar to back; upper tail-coverts and base of tail, 

 white, latter blackening toward end, and outer pair of 

 feathers, entirely white; an orange-red ring around eye; 



basal half of bill, orange yellow, front half, black; feet, 

 yellowish; iris, brown. Adult Female: The crown bar 

 is usually dark brown and the breastband much reduced 

 and brownish. Young; No trace of dark color on 

 head, and little, if any, on sides of neck; leathers of 

 upper parts with pale or rusty edgings; bill, mainly 

 black. 



Nest and Eggs. — Eggs : Generally laid among 

 stones on the beach ; 4, clay color or creamy-white, 

 thinly and uniformly marked with sepia specks, some- 

 times mere points. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America ; breeds 

 locally from southern Saskatchewan, southern On- 

 tario, Magdalen Island.s, and Nova Scotia south to 

 central Nebraska, northwestern Indiana, Lake Erie, 

 New Jersey (formerly), and Virginia; winters on the 

 coast of the United States from Texas to Georgia, and 

 in northern Mexico; casual in migration to Newfound- 

 land, the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and Bermuda. 



Truly a bird of the beach-.sand is the Pipinj:^ 

 Plover. With propriety it might have been 

 named the " Sand Plover.'' It looks the part, for 

 it lives on the sand and so closely resembles the 

 sand in color that it is rendered almost invisible 

 till it moves. Then whoever it is that approaches 

 may notice a whitish streak projecting itself 

 ahead over the intensely bright dry sand so 

 rapidly that it might more readily seem to be 

 something flying than running. Its piping calls 

 are plaintive and pretty, harmonizing finely with 

 the general spirit of the extended beach, the 

 dazzling sand, and the flowing sea with its 

 monotonous undertone. 



Somehow the sea-beach hardly seems fully 

 genuine without it. None the less manv of our 

 beaches have lost this little gem of a resident. 

 With the advent of increasing throngs of summer 

 visitors, the eggs are stepped on or picked up, 

 and the birds are shot by vandals or are forced to 

 move on. At some times it has seemed that these 

 birds would be exterminated, but law and public 

 sentiment have come to the rescue, and in some 

 quarters they still cling tenaciously to their old 

 haunts. They are found not only on the sea- 

 coast, but on the sandy or pebbly shores of the 

 larger inland lakes. 



The eggs of this Plover generally number four 

 and are laid in a rather deep, well-rounded cavity, 

 in almost clear sand, when there is such, but 

 otherwise on shingle or pebbly areas, at the top 

 of beaches. They are laid in the latitude of 

 southern New England during the latter part of 



May or in early June. I have even found fresh 

 eggs in July, but such cases are more likely 

 second layings, after the first set is destroyed, as 

 shore birds as a class seem to rear but one brood 

 each season. The eggs are distinct from those of 

 other allied species in being finely speckled in- 

 stead of coarsely marked. 



Photo by H. K J . I I. ..urtusy ..f U.julikJ.iy. I'aye & Co. 



NEST OF PIPING PLOVER 



The young look like little bunches of cotton- 

 batting blowing over the sand. Though born out 

 in the open glare of the sun on the hot sand, they 

 cannot at first endure much heat, but are care- 

 fully brooded by their parents, or else hide under 

 drift-weed or in the clumps of beach-grass. 



The food of these little Plovers is the tiny 



