SEMIPALMATED PLOVER - 219 



H. S. Swarth sends the following notes of his experience with the 

 nesting of this bird in the Atlin region of northwestern British 

 Columbia : 



A pair or two are pretty sure to be fouud where favorable conditions exist, 

 but as the species requires an expanse of sandy or gravelly beach and as such 

 beaches are not the rule about the lakes of the region, there are long stretches 

 of shore line where the plovers are not found. They avoid rocky or stony 

 beaches that are so favored by the spotted sandpipers. 



He found his first nest, an unusual one, on the shore of Lake Atlin 

 on June 10, and thus describes it : 



The " nest " was in hard-packed gravel in a hole about 1 inch deep and with 

 practically vertical sides. This depression was nearly filled with small chips 

 and a very few straws. The eggs were nearly perpendicular in the nest, points 

 down. It must have been some little labor for the bird to make this excavation, 

 for the gravel was hard enough to retain the shape of the hole throughout the 

 rest of the summer. I returned to the spot in September and found the cavity 

 still sharply defined. 



Audubon (1840) says of his experience in Labrador that this plover 

 forms no nest, but makes a "cavity in the moss, in a place sheltered 

 from the north winds and exposed to the full raj'^s of the sun, usually 

 near the margins of small ponds formed by the melting of the snow, 

 and surrounded by short grass." 



Eggs. — [Author's xote: The semipalmated plover lays four eggs, 

 often only three. They are ovate pyriform to subpyriform in shape, 

 with little or no gloss. The ground colors vary from "buckthorn 

 brown " or " clay color " to " cartridge buff," " olive buff " or " pale 

 olive buff." They are boldly and irregularly marked with small or 

 large spots or blotches of black, brownish black or very dark browns ; 

 some eggs are heavily blotched with " warm sepia " or " chestnut 

 brown " ; there are usually a few small underlying spots of " pale 

 drab gray." The measurements of 100 eggs average 33 by 23.5 

 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 38.2 by 

 24.3, 35.5 by 25.5 and 29.5 by 22 millimeters.] 



Young. — The duration of incubation is not known. In the allied 

 ringed plover of Europe the period of incubation is stated by Dr. 

 W. H. Bergtold (1917) to be 22 and 23 days. 



In the past it has generally been assumed that, with the exception 

 in the case of the phalaropes, the female among the shore birds incu- 

 bates the eggs and takes charge of the young. Joseph Dixon (1927) 

 says: "After several seasons' experience with breeding shore birds 

 in the north the writer has come to believe that in more of our Limi- 

 colae than is generally known it is a common practice for the males 

 to take a leading part in domestic duties not only in incubation but 

 also in the care and training of the downy young." With specimens 

 in hand during the breeding season, he found incubating patches in 



