430 GAME BIEDS OF CALIFORNIA 



meadows. The nest is a mere depression in the grass, more or less 

 concealed, and lined with grasses. The four eggs, which are blunth' 

 pear-shaped, are, relative to the size of the bird, quite large, their 

 size averaging in inches, 1.78 by 1.28. The ground-color varies from 

 a prale olive buff to cinnamon buff ; the superficial spots, which are 

 more numerous and often confluent about the larger end, are snuff 

 brown or chocolate, and the deeper ones are violet gray and lilac 

 gray. 



This beautiful bird like most members of the Snipe family executes a 

 peculiar performance in the mating season. The bird mounts high in the air, 

 or alights on a knoll, ' ' a fence, or even a tree, and utters a prolonged mournful 

 mellow whistle, more like the wind than like a bird's voice, which may be 

 heard even in the night, and is one of the most weird and never to be forgotten 

 sounds in nature "... the notes rapidly rising and swelling, then slowly 

 falling and dying away into a hollow windlike whistle. . , . The young follow 

 their parents as soon as hatched, and the old birds evince considerable distress 

 when the young are molested, often fluttering along the ground, feigning lame- 

 ness, or a broken wing, after the manner of a Killdeer, to draw the intruder 

 away from the site (Eaton, 1910, pp. 332-333). 



This bird is a valuable ally of the farmer. It feeds on locusts, grass- 

 hoppers, cutworms, and other enemies of grass and other crops. During the 

 Locust invasions in Nebraska Professor Aughey found this species among 

 the most useful in destroying the insects and saving the crops, for at that 

 time it was abundant and correspondingly useful. It came in large flocks 

 in spring and did great service on locust-infested farms (Forbush, 1912, 

 p. 319). 



McAtee (1911a) states that the Upland Plover feeds on crane-fly 

 larvae, the cotton worm and cotton cutworm, boll-weevil, clover-leaf 

 weevil, cowpea weevil, clover-root curculio, bill-bugs, wireworms, corn- 

 leaf beetle, and grapevine colaspis. 



While this species is at present of no importance in California, 

 either agriculturally or from a game standpoint, its capture within 

 our borders has considerable scientific interest. Hunters securing 

 specimens in the future should communicate their finds to some 

 scientific institution or journal, after having made very sure of the 

 identification. As previously intimated, there is some likelihood that 

 the Upland Plover really reaches with some regularity the elevated 

 northeastern section of the state, where the one example was found. 

 Conditions there may even be growing more favorable for the bird 

 as a result of irrigation and the extension of meadow country. 



