UPLAND PLOVER 63 



The most beautiful and striking note heard on its breeding grounds 

 is a sweet, mellow, rolling trill, uttered as the bird flies along at a low 

 elevation or while perched on a fence post or even on the ground ; it 

 is evidently a love note. Prof. Lynds Jones (1903) has described it 

 very weU, as follows : 



The rolling cry is not unlike the rolling call of a tree toad, but of a different 

 quality and caliber, which makes it unmistakable. The whistle is partly double, 

 the first part passing upward nearly half an octave, terminating abruptly there, 

 the second part beginning where the first began and rapidly swelling through 

 nearly or quite an octave, then gradually falling again and decreasing in volume 

 to the close, several tones above the beginning. The first part of the whistle is 

 usually rattling or trilled, and sometimes the trill is carried to the end, but 

 oftener it becomes a clear whistle before the culmination and continues clear to 

 the end. Tre-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-c, tre-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-p; or tr-r-r-r-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-p. 

 Often the the whistled part is never reached, but the call stops as if interrupted 

 by some threatened danger. 



The alarm note, as the bird flies away from its nest or as it runs 

 about scolding at the intruder, is an emphatic and rapidly uttered quip- 

 ip-ip-ip. It also has a rich, musical note, which sounds like qua-a-ily, 

 from which one of its local names is taken. This and a modified 

 form of its rolling trill are often heard on migration, a prolonged, 

 mournful, mellow whistle, drifting down out of the sky, more like the 

 whistling of the wind than a bird's voice. 



Field marks. — The upland plover should be easily recognized by its 

 size and shape ; its slender, graceful form, its delicate head and neck, 

 and its long tail are characteristic. In flight its long, pointed wings, 

 its dark rump, and its barred, whitish, outer tail feathers are good 

 field marks. Its manner of flight and its notes are distinctive. 



Fall. — About the middle of July, or even earlier, old and young 

 birds begin to gather into flocks, move off their breeding grounds, and 

 start on their fall migrations. The migratory flights are made mainly 

 during the night or early evening. At this season the birds are much 

 wilder, the leisurely behavior of spring and summer has gone, their 

 flight is much swifter and stronger, and it is difficult to approach the 

 loose, detached flocks which stop to feed during the day on the hoards 

 of grasshoppers and locusts which are then to be found in the upland 

 pastures and dry meadows. During wet spells they do not stop, but 

 in hot, dry weather they linger to feast on the abundant insect life 

 and become very fat. We used to expect them in Massachusetts about 

 the last of July, but they were most abundant in August and early 

 September. The general movement is southward, through the in- 

 terior and the Atlantic Coast States and through the West Indies 

 to South America. The earliest birds reach Louisiana and Texas 

 early in July and arrive in Peru and Argentina in September. The 

 last birds leave their breeding range before the end of September. 



