258 BULLETIN 14(5^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



higher portions of the b.eaches where the dry, sandy plains were 

 sprinkled with bits of broken shells, small stones, and pieces of drift- 

 wood or other rubbish and where a few scattered weeds and grasses 

 were the only signs of vegetation. The nests were usually placed near 

 some such object, or partially sheltered by a few blades of grass, 

 but some were out on the open sand or in the flat sandy hollows 

 between the dunes; they were always beyond the reach of ordinary 

 tides. Oyster-catchers and least terns were nesting in the same 

 localities and not far away willets were nesting in the grassy places. 



Among the Florida Keys, on May 8, 1903, we found a small colony 

 nestings on Lake Ke}'^; there were beaches of finely broken shells 

 surrounding a small shallow pond, more or less overgrown with 

 small, scattered red mangroves. A colony of least terns were nest- 

 rng here and a few pairs of black-neclvcd stilts. Four nests of the 

 plover were found, one out on the open beach among the terns' nests 

 and the others under the shelter of little mangrove seedlings. These 

 and all the other nests of Wilson plover that I have found were 

 mere hollows in the sand with no apparent attempt at lining, but 

 others have occasionally^ found them evidently lined with bits of 

 broken shell. Henry Thurston (1913) found a nest " snuggled 

 closely to the stump " of a " ripped up " palmetto ; the eggs were 

 " resting in a small hole that had been scooped out in the sand and 

 adorned with a few twigs." He left this nest and returned later 

 in an attempt to see the female leave the nest. As he " got within a 

 few yards the male, unobserved before as he was facing him and 

 was therefore practically invisible, piped several notes. Swiftly 

 and mouse-like the female glided from her treasures, crouching low^ 

 beside the stump and did not stand erect until she reached the 

 water's edge." 



The Wilson plover might almost be said to nest in colonies, although 

 the nests are usually not close together ; N. B. Moore says in his notes 

 that they are never nearer than 20 yards apart. Oscar E. Baynard 

 (1914) found a colony of at least 50 pairs nesting on a bank of white 

 sand, probably half a mile long and barely a foot above high-water 

 line. He relates an interesting experience in changing eggs from one 

 nest to another. One of a set of three heavily incubated eggs that he 

 had taken hatched out in his possession ; as he could not find the nest 

 from which they came, he hunted up another nest which contained 

 fresh eggs ; and following is his account of what happened : 



I took these eggs and placed the young bird and my two eggs in their place, 

 and then moved ofE and sat down to watch developments. In a few minutes the 

 mother bird ran up to the nest, looked hard at the young birdy which had run 

 off about 2 feet from the eggs, circled the nest several times, and then squatted 

 down on the two eggs and began calling softly to the young bird. In a few 

 Minutes he crept up to the old bird. She looked him over for fully two minutes, 



