BLACK-BEL"LIED PLO^/ER 163 



took it up till half a dozen or more had gone through it. They also hopped on 

 one foot in the water, as shore birds so often do on the beach, and, in this, one 

 set the fashion and others followed it. This hopping altogether seems to be 

 quite common play with various species. 



Like most shore birds, they can swim quite easily, as the following 

 note from Francis M. Weston will show : 



On March 27 I was watching a small flock of black-bellied plovers feeding on 

 a sand bar at low tide. One of the birds was separated from the others by 

 a deep pool about 6 feet wide, and, in order to join them, entered the water and 

 swam across the pool. While in the water, it reminded me very much of a 

 diminutive gull — it floated high in the " stern " with the forward part of the 

 body low in the water. The transit of the pool was made so quickly that there 

 was no time for a detailed study of the bird's motions. Thinking that the 

 plover was wounded and had had to swim through lack of ability to fly, I ap- 

 proached the flock, when all took wing and flew to another bar several hundred 

 yards distant. An examination of the pool showed that it was more than a foot 

 deep — far too deep for a bird of that size to wade. 



Voice. — To my mind the whistle of the black-bellied plover is 

 one of the sweetest and most fascinating of all the Limicoline voices ; 

 it is not quite as melodious as that of the piping plover, nor is it 

 quite as startling as the loud call of the yellowlegs; but it heralds 

 the coming of one of our finest shore birds and hence it produces 

 a thrill. The sportsman loves to hear' it and he can imitate it quite 

 easily. John T. Nichols has contributed the following notes on it : 



The flight note of this species is a clear, mellow, ringing whistle — pe-oo-ee. 

 Although shortened and otherwise varied at different times, this note is the 

 only one ordinarily heard from single individuals or small flocks. In general 

 it may be said that the diagnostic flight or identification note of plovers is used 

 more extensively than in yellowlegs and other species, for instance, and that 

 they seem to have less variety of calls. 



A second note heard from a flock of birds either in the air or alighted, and 

 in chorus when such a flock is flushed, circling and hovering in uncertain man- 

 ner, is a soft, mellow quu-liu. A dissimilar unloud cuk cuJc cuk, cul<:, cuJc, ciik 

 cuk cuk cuk which I heard from a single bird in Florida in September, alighted 

 with decoys and running about, completes my knoviiedge of the calls of this 

 plover. 



The ordinary call note, referred to above, has a sweet, mellow, and 

 plaintive quality, with a tinge of wiidness, which enlivens the soli- 

 tude of the ocean beaches; I should write it pee-u-wee, the first, loud, 

 rich, and prolonged, the second lower and shorter, and the third 

 higher pitched, more plaintive, and softer, Grinnell, Bryant, and 

 Storer (1918) describe the note as "a loud, ringing wher-rell, far 

 reaching and, at a distance, clear and mellow in quality." Dr. E. R. 

 P. Janvrin tells me that he has " also heard them utter a loud note 

 resembling that of the common tern, but no so harsh and more 

 musical, which is apparently an alarm note." 



Field marks. — The black axillars, on the under side of the wing 

 next to the body, are very conspicuous when the bird is flying and 



