BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER 155 



see no more than half a dozen in a day, where formerly we used to 

 see them in hundreds. On the spring flight, however, they are often 

 very abundant there, and apparently have increased since spring 

 sTiooting was stopped; formerly they were much more abundant in 

 the fall than in the spring, but the reverse is now the case. This is 

 a striking example of the bird's sagacity. Francis N. Balch told me 

 that he saw at least 4,000 black-bellied plover on Monomoy on one 

 day during the height of the spring flight in 1927. This compares 

 favorably with Nuttall's much quoted statement that flocks of more 

 than 1,000 gathered near Boston about 100 years ago. Some of the 

 figures given below will show that there are still plenty of black- 

 bellied plover left in places where they are not too much molested. 



Spring. — From the northern part of its winter range in the south- 

 ern States the black-bellied plover starts on its northward migration 

 in April and there is a general northward movement, entirely across 

 the continent, all through May ; the last of the migrants do not leave 

 the northern States until the first week in June. Arthur T. Wayne 

 (1910) says that, in South Carolina, " when the wind is from the 

 south and the tide is low in the afternoon, these birds migrate in 

 small flocks in a northwesterly direction," probably taking an over- 

 land route to their breeding grounds. But there is also a heavy 

 northward migration along the Atlantic coast, at least as far as New 

 Jersey, whence I believe the main flight swings inland, though there 

 is a well-marked spring migration in Massachusetts, mainly during 

 the last half of May, which seems to have increased in recent years. 

 During the latter part of May, 1927, 1 was privileged to see, through 

 the kindness of Dr. Harry C. Oberholser, the greatest flight of 

 black-bellied plover, dowitchers, and turnstones that I have ever 

 seen. On the coast of New Jersey, in the vicinity of Tuckerton 

 Bay and Little Egg Harbor, we made actual counts, or careful esti- 

 mates, of all birds seen and the totals were far ahead of any he had 

 recorded there in recent years. Seven day's records show a total 

 of over 20,000 black-bellied plover; on our two best days, May 27 

 and 28, we recorded 6,200 and 5,600 ; and on our poorest day. May 25, 

 we counted only 238, showing that they came in waves. The black- 

 bellied plover were often associated in the large flocks with ruddy 

 turnstones; we saw one immense flock which we estimated to con- 

 tain 3,500 birds of these two species. This great flock was a thrill- 

 ing sight, as it swept in over the marsh like a great cloud and 

 alighted; twice, while we were watching, it arose like a swarm of 

 insects, circled about, separated into two divisions, joined again, and 

 alighted. We did not see it depart. 



This seems to be the best place on the New Jersey coast to observe 

 shore birds in large numbers, where they alight to rest and feed on 



