PIPING PLOVER 239 



During perhaps a quarter of an hour the birds continued to scratch and pipe 

 until several little hollows had been begun and abandoned. The female, how- 

 ever, scratched for the most part in the hollow between the stones, digging it 

 out to a depth of an inch. Soon this phase of activity passed off and the birds 

 began to feed. 



During the hour the birds were under observation neither one made its 

 bobbing motion. 



Eggs. — [Author's note : Four eggs are the almost invariable rule 

 with the piping plover ; rarely only three are laid in second sets, and 

 I have found one set of five. They are ovate to short ovate in shape 

 and have no gloss. The ground colors vary from " light buff " to 

 " cartridge buff " or buffy white. They are sparingly, but quite 

 evenly," marked with small spots, or fine dots, of blackish brown or 

 black, and sometimes with a few underlying spots of " pallid purplish 

 gray." They are almost invisible on the sand or among small peb- 

 bles. The measurements of 71 eggs average 31.4 by 24.2 millimeters ; 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 34,4 by 25.3, 31.8 by 26.4, 

 29.2 by 23.8 and 30 by 23 millimeters.] 



Young. — Gayle Pickwell (1925) describes in detail the hatching 

 of an ^^^ and ascertained that the young birds may leave the nest a 

 few hours later. He says : " It soon refused to remain in the nest. 

 Finally, it left, and while it was tottering insecurely away the parent 

 bird came running up with little chuckles of solicitude." 



Alexander G. Lawrence, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, says in his notes : 



Careful search of the sand spit revealed a number of small white moving 

 points, which later search proved to be baby piping plovers. While I was 

 chasing one it tripped, fell on its back, and lay as if stunned, deceiving me so 

 completely that I turned to get my camera to make a close-up picture of the 

 little fellow. No sooner had I moved av/ay than he sprang up and ran pell- 

 mell over the sand, and the chase commenced again. 



C. A. Robbins (1919) describes further the behavior of the young 

 birds thus : 



Of course it frequently happens that there is no time for concealment. Then 

 the young birds attempt to escape by running, the tiny legs working with 

 surprising rapidity and carrying them over the ground so swiftly and smoothly 

 that they looked like balls of down blowing before the wind. Also, if their 

 escape up the beach is cut off and they continue to be closely pressed, they do 

 not hesitate to take to the water. Even those only a few hours out of the 

 shell swim well and navigate their frail craft, if not with intelligence, at least 

 in a direction away from the source of danger. 



Plumages. — [Author's note: The downy young piping plover is 

 sand colored above. The crown, back, wings, rump, and thighs are 

 variegated with " cream buff," " cartridge buff," and grayish white, 

 sprinlded or peppered with browns; on the wings the color deepens 

 almost to " chamois." The forehead is buffy white ; there is a more or 

 less distinct V-shaped mark of dark brown in the center of the crown 



