THE BELTED PIPING 1'U >\ ER. 



493 



It is not fair to say that the nesting site was unmarked, for what is 

 easier to see than a piece of waif coal, after one's attention has been called 

 to it? And as for the nest itself, what could be more charming than a 

 mosaic of flattened pebbles and bits of broken shell, to say nothing of such 

 neighbors as a fish-bone and a joint and a half of straw? 



While we were examining the nest, the birds kept circling about un- 

 easily at a safe distance, uttering low cries in questioning or querulous tones 



Fhoto by the Author. 



LM THE MIDDLE OF THE PATHLESS SAND.' 



— queep, in a variety of inflections, and a longer queeplo or queeplezv. They 

 had the habit also of scampering rapidly for a little ways and then pulling 

 up short with a compensating bob and perk like the Killdeer. When squatted 

 upon the ground with the lower whites obscured, the color of the Plover's 

 back so perfectly matched that of the glowing sand as to render the bird 

 almost invisible. 



All the birds seen on this occasion, to the number of four or five, were 



