456 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



not decoy to the cries of a wounded individual. The species is essen- 

 tially gregarious, being found in flocks ranging in number from a 

 half dozen birds to several hundred; but sometimes lone individuals 

 are seen in company with other shore birds. 



"The clear, plaintive note of the blackbreast is the most musical 

 sound of the shore. . . . Early August sees the first small flocks, and 

 from Cape Cod to North Carolina they are found" M^herever the fall- 

 ing tide leaves exposed extensive sand-flats, and where marshes and 

 wild ocean beaches afford a resting-place at high water. Their whistle, 

 often heard before the flock is seen, warns the gunner to lie low ; soon 

 the dark line of birds comes into view, moving close to the water with 

 grace and speed, heading straight for the decoys. One or two on 

 set wings circle within range ; but, quick to notice the slightest motion, 

 they are up and off while the hunter may have hesitated a second 

 for a closer shot. With low water the birds avoid the promontories 

 and follow the receding tide until the farthermost bars are exposed ; 

 there they feed with the throngs of other shore birds. If this mixed 

 company of foragers is disturbed, the Black-bellied Plover are the 

 first to take alarm and leave. "A little shooting quickly teaches them 

 danger, and few birds become more wary: flying high between stop- 

 ping places, they keep to the open and avoid everything in the nature 

 of a blind. ..." The young upon arrival in the fall are much more 

 easily shot than the adults, as they come readily to decoys and answer 

 if whistled to (Sanford, Bishop and Van Dyke, 1903, pp. 457-459). 



Of the general habits of the Black-bellied Plover as observed for 

 many years on the Massachusetts coast, Mackay (1892a, pp. 146-151) 

 gives the description which follows : This 



. . . is in a great degree a tide bird, seeking a large portion of its food on 

 those extensive sand flats left by the receding waters, which may bo adjacent 

 to marshes where the grass is short, and which are interspersed with barren 

 places where there is no grass, also to uplands and fields where the grass is 

 scanty or closely fed down by sheep or cattle. It is to such places that they 

 like to resort when driven from their feeding grounds on the sand flats by 

 the incoming tide. . . . 



When on the ground they usually run very fast for four or five yards, then 

 stop, elevate the head, and look around. They strike at the object they are 

 going to pick up and eat with a very quick motion. . . . 



There is something aristocratic in the bearing of the adult birds as you 

 watch them standing on the marsh with their heads erect, their black and 

 white plumage strikingly defined, and their large, dark, liquid eyes ever on 

 the alert for danger. ... 



The Black-bellied Plover fly lower on migration, I think, than do the 

 American Golden Plover, and the flocks string out more, a customary mode of 

 flight being in lines; they also fly like Ducks and Geese at such times. They 

 are apt to fly in lines also when coming from the sand flats to and over the 

 marshes. . . . 



