Piping plover 243 



downwarrl in pitch toward the end, and they are sometimes followed by the 

 peep-lo notes, at least in flight. 



J. T. Nichols says in his notes : 



When nesting the piping plover is rather noisy. The thought of its plaintive, 

 rather mellow whistled notes, queep, queep, queeplo, etc., which perhaps have 

 an analogy with song, takes me back to the sand dunes of Cape Cod standing 

 in the dazzling sunshine, where I first became familiar with this species a 

 number of years ago. At other times of year piping plover are rather silent. 

 Their whistled flight note hee-hu, with falling inflection at the end, is not loud 

 or striking, and suggests that of the semipalmated plover, reversed. 



Gayle Pickwell (1925) in a study of the breeding habits " on a 

 &trip of sandy beach at Capital Lake near Lincoln " [Nebraska] says : 



The most interesting thing about the piping plovers was their activities 

 when one was near the nest. As an observer approached the nest he would be 

 met by one of the plovers dropping down out of nowhere, uttering its sharp kee- 

 wee, Icee-tvee and striving its utmost to lead one away. It would then run 

 briskly across the sand and disappear suddenly from sight when it stopped to 

 crouch down and utter its long-drawn wJtooaah, whooaah. 



The variety of their cries and calls was amazing. 



At almost any period, while we were in the neighborhood, one of the birds 

 could be observed flying here and there with slow, wide Vving beats, uttering a 

 rapid ktiJc, kuTc, kiik, kuJc. It would shortly alight and wind it up with a long- 

 drawn, weird wliooaah icliooaali that seemed to come from nowhere in partic- 

 ular. The distress cries while one was near the nest were confined chiefly to a 

 sharp kee-ah, kec-ah. The reason for their name of " piping " became very 

 apparent at such times. 



The kuk mentioned by Mr. Pickwell is seemingly analogous to a 

 common note which the semipalmated plovers use as they carry on 

 their harmless running flights along the beach — a sort of rattling 

 cackle of short notes somewhat suggesting the call of the red crossbill. 

 These utterances are evidently expressions of a heightening in the 

 emotional state of these closely related plovers. 



John A. Farley (1919) describes a mating song accompanying 

 courting activities. He says : 



I noticed a group of three, two of which chased each other around just like 

 two robins fighting over a female. Some flew around rather low over the 

 beach (some of them rather close to me), in apparent sexual excitement, and 

 uttered notes while on the wing. These were different from the usual mellow, 

 rather low notes which the birds were uttering more or less all the time while 

 on the sand. Their notes on the wing were higher in tone and rather long 

 drawn out, and mixed in with them were some little chuckles. The whole 

 might be described as some sort of a mating song. 



Field marks. — J. T. Nichols says in substance in his notes that the 

 bird — 



may be recognized by its exceedingly pale colors which nearly match the dry 

 sand of the beach above high-water mai'k. The white in the wing shows so 

 little contrast to the general tone of the plumage that, although in flight a 



