244 BULLETIN 146^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



pattern on the wing is visible, it is very faintly indicated. A flying sanderling 

 sometimes appears to be about the same color, but has bolder wing pattern 

 than the plover. 



The bobbing motion characteristic of several of the plovers is a 

 common habit of the piping plover. This is a single hitching motion 

 by which the body is tilted up and down on the legs as a fulcrum. 

 It is apparently identical with the bob of the semipalmated plover 

 and is made frequently as the birds stand about on the beach. 



Enemies. — The piping plover is shielded from its enemies by 

 remarkable protective coloration which renders the bird nearly in- 

 visible as it stands motionless on the gray sand, especially when 

 among scattered stones. The eggs, the young, and the adult bird 

 are alike protected, so now that man is no longer its deadly enemy 

 there is little to check the species from repopulating its breeding 

 haunts in its former numbers. 



E. Beaupre speaks in his notes of a local condition in eastern 

 Ontario. He says : " Owing to the destructive work of crows [in 

 eating the plover's eggs] some are obliged to lay a second clutch, 

 and this no doubt accounts for some of the nests containing fresh 

 eggs in June." 



Fall. — The piping plover moves southward soon after its nesting 

 activities are over, following the habit of its relatives, the Limicolae 

 which breed during the short summer about the Arctic Circle. Early 

 departure from its nesting ground is not imperative in the case of 

 this southerly breeding bird, but the habit is undoubtedly of long 

 standing and dates back to the time when the species bred close to 

 the edge of the glacial ice field and summer passed quickly. 



'Winte7\ — W. E. D. Scott (1892), speaking of the bird in Jamaica 

 on its winter quarters, says : " In" October, 1887, piping plover were 

 abundant among the lagoons and mangrove swamps at the Palisades ; 

 they moved about in large flocks which, when once alighted on the 

 shell-bestrewn beaches, it was impossible to detect." 



We leave the little plover covered by the helmet of invisibility. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range^ — Eastern North America and the West Indies. 



Breeding range. — The breeding range of the piping plover extends 

 north to Saskatchewan (Big Stick Lake and Quill Lake) ; Mani- 

 toba (Birch Island in Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg) ; Michi- 

 gan (Big Beaver Island and Charity Island) ; Ontario (Toronto 

 and Brighton) ; Quebec (probably Natashquan) ; and probably New- 

 foundland ( Stephen ville Crossing, St. George Bay). East to proba- 

 bly Newfoundland (Stephenville) ; the Magdalen Islands; Prince 

 Edward Island (North River) ; Nova Scotia (Sable Island and 



