PLOVERS 



265 



marine life cast up bv the waves on the broad Httle tilings has always seemed to me an atrocity, 



white beaches where they spend their innocent happily now made a crime, both by State enact- 



li\es and beautify the impressive surroundings. ments and by the laws of the nation. 

 The sight of a big man with a gun chasing the Herhert K. Joh. 



SNOWY PLOVER 



.ffigialitis nivosa Cassi)i 



A. I.) U. Number 2,-8 



Other Name. — Snowy Ring Plover. 



General Description. — Length, 7 inches. Color 

 above, ashy-gray; lielow, snowy-white: no coinf^lctc 

 Zi'tiite ring around neck. l^ill slender, shorter than 

 head ; hind toe missing. 



Color. — Adult M.\le in Summer: Forehead, line 

 over eye, sides of head and whole under parts, snowy 

 white; broad black bar from eye to eye; crown, pale 

 orange-brown; narrow black streak from back of eye 

 tending to meet its fellow on nape: rest of upper parts, 

 I)ale ashy-gray: several pairs of tail-feathers, like 

 back, darkening toward ends ; two or three outside 

 pairs, entirely white ; primaries, dusky with a brown- 

 ish central space; greater coverts, ashy-gray, white- 

 tipped ; primary coverts, darker, also white-tipped ; 

 outer secondaries, dark brown, long inner ones, color 

 of back; a broad black patch on each side of breast, 



nnt meeting on back of neck or front of breast; bill 

 and feet, black ; iris, brown. Adult Female in Summer: 

 Hand over eye and stripe back of it, with breast 

 patch, dusky-gray ; otherwise similar to male. .Xdults 

 IN Winter: Black parts replaced by grayish brown; 

 otherwise similar to summer plumage. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: A depression in tlie sandy 

 beach. Eggs: 3, pale buff or clay color with numerous 

 scratchy markings of dark brown and black. 



Distribution. — Western United States, to South 

 America: breeds from central California, northern 

 Utah, and southern Kansas south to northern Lower 

 California and southern Te.xas ; winters from southern 

 California and Texas south along both coasts of Cen- 

 tra! America, and on the west coast to Chile ; casual 

 in Oregon, Wyoming. Ontario, Louisiana, Florida, Ba- 

 hamas, Cuba, Venezuela, and Brazil. 



Something like poetic license must be in\oked 

 as an excuse for calling this Plover " snowy,'' 

 since in point of fact only about half, and that 

 the lower half, of the bird is white, while the 

 upper parts generally are buffy-gray. It is essen- 

 tially a bird of the western United States. Its 

 note is similar to that of the Piping Plover and 

 so are its habits, especially that of searching for 

 marine Crustacea and worms along the seashore, 

 following the receding waves and retreating be- 

 fore them as they come sliding in. 



The male and female take turns at incubating 

 the eggs and the bird who is on the nest is fed 

 by the other. But for the tracks made by the 

 Ijirds in these visits, the eggs usually would be 

 exceedingly hard to find, as their color often 

 makes them blend perfectly with the sand and 

 drift about them. 



The breeding habits of the birds were closely 



observed at Santa Barbara, Califijrnia, by Henry 

 W. Henshaw, and the following graphic descrip- 

 tion of their conduct when their nest was dis- 

 covered is included by Dr. Baird in Nortli Ameri- 

 can Birds: " Great was the alarm of the colony 

 as soon as his | .Mr. Henshaw's] presence was 

 known. They gathered into little knots, follow- 

 ing him at a distance with sorrowful cries. 

 When her nest was seen to be really discovered, 

 the female would fly close bv him and make use 

 of all the arts which birds of this kind know so 

 well how to emjiloy on like occasions. With 

 wings droo])ing and trailing on the sand, she 

 would move in front till his attention was 

 secured, and would then fall helplessly down, 

 and, burying her breast in the sand, present the 

 very picture of despair and woe, while the male 

 liird and the other pairs expressed their sym- 

 pathy bv loud cries." 



