THE OSPREY. 



87 



that only here does it find conditions suited to 

 its nature and taste. 



Tt) those who have met with the nest of the 

 Pipini;- Plover of the east the nestint;" habits of 

 its belted relative of the west may not offer any- 

 thinj^" new; but they will ])robably bear me out 

 • in the statement that the nest thouj>-h absolutely 

 exposed to view is yet as difficult to discern as 

 the most cunning-ly concealed j^^rass nest. The 

 problem is this: (iiven a strip of Hat, i^ravelly 

 shin!;-!e perhaps 20 feet lonf^ by 10 feet wide, 

 absolutely bare of ve<;-etation. to find a Plover's 

 nest containing" four es4"g"s emd in phiin view 

 somewhere in the center. Seeing the bird run- 

 ning rapidly away from this strip when ap- 

 proached within ()0 yards, cross and recross this 

 small space with the closest scrutiny, scanning" 

 every pebble, apparently', and then, baffled, 

 withdraw to some concealed point 20 yards away 

 and wait fifteen minutes for the parent bird to 

 return and point out the exact location, (for she 

 will do it) a!id then probably you'll fail again 

 and have i; ;ill to do over before the eye finally 

 succeeds in differentiating" those sand-colored, 

 finely spotted eg"gs from the surrounding gravel 

 stones. Once definitely located the eye seems 

 to see little else, and one wonders how it could 

 have ever passed them over reposing" so daintily 

 in the slight depression on their unique bed of 

 fine, smooth pebbles most carefully selected and 

 arrang"ed as the sole lining". Perhaps nothing 

 but the extreme solicitude of the sitting bird, 

 which leads her to braveh' return to her eggs 

 even while the intruder is near, has rendered 

 the search successful. 



Davies says of the Piping Plover tliat it is 

 stated she rarely sits upon her eggs except at 

 night, and in his account of the Belted species 

 he says that its habits are those of uicloda. It 

 is my observation, however, that c'wcuincincta 



rarely leaves her nest except -when disturbed, 

 and then displays more than ordinary anxiety 

 to get back, and it seems extremely improbable 

 that either upon the Atlantic coast or in this 

 region could eggs exposed all day on the open 

 beach retain sufficient heat to insure hatching. 

 This idea might arise from the fact that the 

 sitting bird leaves her nest while yet an intru- 

 der is a long way ofiF, and before the eye can 

 catch the little sand-colored body running over 

 the sand in a series of short spins, and it will 

 be found she has already put some distance be- 

 tween herself and the nest. The eg"gs, however, 

 let the day be sunny or cloudy, will always be 

 found warm. 



In my study of this species this j'ear, I -was 

 especially fortunate in locating a colony of four 

 pairs occupying a strip of shingle, lately a shore 

 line before the receding of the waters of the 

 lake, some 200 ^-ards in length, and about 50 

 feet from the present water's edge. The alarm 

 note is a single, clear, short, sweet, piping 

 whistle. This is varied by two equally short, 

 sweet notes quicKly uttered, the second being 

 two full tones below the first, and suggesting 

 the two whistling notes emplo3'ed hy you ^-ears 

 ago to bring to your side the ragged chum of 

 boyhood — though far below the Plover's notes in 

 musical quality. Sometimes when disturbed, 

 and flying about this Plover titters a long, 

 faint, mournful whistle, scarceful audible from 

 a little distance. 



The principal companions of this species, so 

 far as observed this year, were the Ring-billed 

 Gull, Common Tern, Least and Spotted Sand- 

 piper. Semipalmated and Kildeer Plover. Wil- 

 son's Phalarope, Avocet, various species of 

 ducks, and occasionally a big bunch of White 

 Pelican. 



THE REQUIREMENTS OF A FAUNAE LIST. 

 By W. E. Clyde Todd. 



Devoid of interest to the general reader, and 

 too often passed over even by the professed 

 biologist, the faunal list is yet invaluable to 

 the student of zoo-geography, furnishing as it 

 does the data essential to a proper elucidation 

 and understanding of the various interesting 

 problems in this important branch of biological 

 science. Indeed, zoo-geography may be said to 

 consist of the log-ical inductions and conclusions 

 drawn from a number of local lists, themselves 

 not necessarily of intrinsic value. It is there- 

 fore right and proper to encourage the publica- 

 tion of such lists, as in direct proportion to their 

 number and excellence will be the extent of our 

 knowledge and the exactness of our understand- 

 ing of the geographical distribution of life. 



It is further obvious that a list of the compo- 

 nents of the fauna (or flora) of a given region 

 will fulfill the above end according to, first, its 

 accuracy, second, its completeness, and third, 

 the fullness of its data. So many local lists de- 

 ficient in these essential respects appear from 

 time to time that it would seem desirable to in- 

 dicate just what feature such papers should em- 

 brace so as to be most useful and valuable. The 



time has gone by. in ornithology at least, when 

 a mereU' nominal list of species can suffice for 

 our requirements: we must know the local status 

 of each species, and, that this knowledge may 

 be fully intelligible, we need to know some- 

 thing" about the region which it inhabits. A 

 local list of birds presents perhaps greater diffi- 

 culties in its proper construction than one in 

 any other class, owing chiefly to the fact that 

 birds are migratory and otherwise extremely 

 mobile in character, and their exact status is 

 frequently hard to determine, so that the signi- 

 ficance of the presence or absence of a given 

 species is often uncertain. The earlier authors 

 wei'e conspicuously vague and general in their 

 statements along these lines, and not infre- 

 quently in absolute error. Comparatively little 

 data of value are to be had from their works, and 

 even in more recent years many writers have 

 fallen far short of the desirable and proper 

 standard. Indeed, when we consider the extent 

 and character of the data available to Dr. J. A. 

 Allen in 1871, when he published his memorable 

 paper on the ornithological faunal areas of 

 Eastern North America (Bulletin Museum Com- 



