PIPING PLOVER 241 



food. They run a short distance, then pause and stare at the sand 

 with neck a little outstretched, head tilted a bit to one side, perhaps 

 looking for a movement to show where food is, for often, leaning 

 farther forward, they pick something from the sand. As they run 

 over the beach — a run and a pause, another run and another scruti- 

 nizing pause, often changing direction to catch up a bit of food — the 

 birds suggest very strongly a robin feeding on a lawn and the 

 resemblance is strengthened when the plover seizes a 3-inch-long 

 worm and drags it from beneath the sand, pulling slowly and care- 

 fully lest it break, and swallows it whole. 



Behavior. — Their actions while feeding are apparently identical 

 with those of the semipalmated plover, and the flight of the two birds 

 is similar if not exactly the same. Their flight is wilder than that 

 of the sanderling, for example, which drives steadily along; they 

 twist and turn more often and tilt from one side to the other, giving 

 the impression of extreme swiftness and agility. 



Descriptions of the action of the sitting bird when disturbed differ 

 very little. The bird is invariably wary and steals off before the 

 intruder comes near, leaving him in doubt as to the existence of a 

 nest. After the eggs are hatched, however, their actions change 

 completely, and the parents display the utmost concern for the safety 

 of their young. In the following quotation from his notes, E. H. 

 Forbush describes graphically this behavior, and -also shows that 

 even in the early days of the young bird's life the parents do not feed 

 them. Mr. Forbush says : 



A colony of piping plovers on the same beach had been much reduced in 

 numbers, but the behavior of one pair shovped that they had young on the 

 beach. "We saw one plover and then another fluttering along the ground like 

 young or crippled birds. Their actions might deceive a novice, but by watch- 

 ing them with a glass, we soon saw that they were adult birds. They 

 threw themselves on the ground, breast downward, and, drooping the flight 

 feathers or primaries, raised and agitated the shorter secondaries, until the 

 motion resembled the fluttering pinions of young or wounded birds, meantime 

 pushing themselves along over the sand with their feet. As the wings were 

 not spread, the long primary quills were not noticeable, and so the imitation of 

 the struggles of a helpless bird was almost perfect. Immediately we began 

 a careful search for the nest, looking in all the usual hiding places in or under 

 the tufts of beach grass, but no nest could we find. As the old birds con- 

 tinued their plaintive cries and circled about, we extended our search, expect- 

 ing to find some half-grown young flattened out somewhere on the beach. 

 Finally, by hunting over the sand we found on the open beach, a nest exactly 

 like that of the least tern. A few little pebbles had been grouped in a slight 

 hollow, and there, partly beside and partly on the pebbles, lay three lovely 

 little downy chicks and one egg. We attempted to photograph the parents, but 

 they would not come to the young; and, as the little ones had already begun 

 to run, about, we sunk an old barrel in the beach, and put them and the egg 

 in it, that we might know where to find them on the morrow. 



The day was foggy and cold, and during the night a thunderstorm drenched 

 the earth; but the next morning the egg had disappeared, and four lively 



