238 BULLETIN 14c 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Whether the birds formed the pile or not, I do not, of course, know, 

 but a very careful examination failed to show how else the pile could 

 have been formed." A. C. Bent speaks in his notes of finding at 

 Dartmouth, Mass., "three nests containing four eggs each, all on 

 a high, sandy and pebbly beach in the heart of a tern colony. The 

 nests were hollows in the sand, profusely lined with broken pieces 

 of white shell and were quite conspicuous." E. W. Hadeler found 

 on the shore of Lake Erie, at Painesville, Ohio, a paved nest. He 

 says in his notes that there were "four eggs, almost the same color 

 as the ground and stones, laid in a slight depression on some very 

 small flat stones and around the nest were stones of all shapes and 

 sizes." Philipp and Bowdish (1917) in New Brunswick "found a 

 small colony of breeding birds, five nests, each containing four eggs, 

 being located. The nests were on sandy beach, some in the open, 

 others among sparse clumps of beach grass. They were slight hol- 

 lows in the sand, some quite unlined, others with a well-formed rim 

 of bits of broken shell or slate." In a letter to Mr. Bent, Edward R. 

 Ford calls attention to some birds nesting in an unusual environment. 

 He says: 



At Dune Park, lud., the piping plover, to the number of five or six pairs, hag 

 taken advantage of the widening of the beach (through the operations of a sand 

 company which has removed part of the dunes) and lays its eggs at a consider- 

 able distance from the water's edge. The old ridges formed by the tramway 

 beds, from which the rails have been, for the most part, removed ; the old cinder 

 heaps, bits of scrap iron and other odds and ends of human labor, with here and 

 there patches of vetch and coarse grass, seem well suited to its requirements. 



In common with some of its near relatives, the piping plover has 

 the habit of making additional hollows in the sand in the vicinity 

 of the hollow in which its eggs are laid. These hollows have been 

 termed cock nests and have been compared to the nests which the male 

 of some of the wrens builds while his mate is sitting. 



My notes, taken on Cape Cod in the company of Charles A. Rob- 

 bins in mid April, refer to this subject : 



After some 10 minutes, during which time the two birds stood motionless ou 

 the sand facing the wind, they began to move about, the male taking visible 

 interest in the female and following her as she walked away. They came to a 

 place back of the beach where stones lay sparsely scattered on the dry sand and 

 little bunches of beach grass and patches of Hudsonia were growing. Here the 

 male stopped at a spot between two stones, lowered his breast to the ground and 

 kicked out alternately with his legs scratching the sand from beneath him. 

 Then moving off a little way he did the same in another spot while the female 

 came to the place between the stones and continued the hollowing process 

 which he had begun. Nearly, if not quite, in time with their rapidly moving 

 legs, the birds uttered a series of short, high-pitched whistles, all on the same 

 note, having the piping quality of their common call. When the scratching 

 stopped, the notes stopped. 



