480 GAME BIEDS OF CALIFORNIA 



The Wilson Plover is typically a bird of southern North America. 

 Its admission to a place in the list of California birds is based upon 

 the capture of a single individual in worn breeding plumage at Pacific 

 Beach, San Diego County, June 29, 1894 (Ingersoll, 1895, p. 87; 

 Grinnell, 19025, p. 197). This individual was first seen, by Mr. A. M. 

 Ingersoll, five days previously at the same place, in company with 

 a female Snowy Plover and in the vicinity of the latter 's nest. Atten- 

 tion was first attracted to the bird b}' hearing its ". . . peculiar alarm 

 cry, quite unlike any note of the usually silent Snowy Plover." It 

 followed the Snowy about, assisting her in remonstrating against 

 invasion of her nesting precincts. "He was the most talkative Plover 

 I ever met and could not have shown more solicitude had he been 

 the rightful owner of the eggs. . . . After I left . . . [he] ran 

 ahead eighty or a hundred feet and kept at about that distance until 

 we had gone up the beach nearl.y a quarter of a mile. Then he took 

 wing and disappeared in opposite direction." 



On the date of capture, June 29, the Wilson Plover was with three 

 Snowies and within a hundred feet of where seen previously. "He 

 ran ahead of me as on former occasion, but only uttered a few notes 

 and did not seem as much disturbed by my presence." After more 

 than three hours continuous observation, Mr. Ingersoll concluded that 

 the bird was unmated and shot it. The specimen is now in the Grin- 

 nell collection, in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. As the species 

 may breed along tlie coast of Lower California not far to the south- 

 ward, it is not unreasonable to expect that other individuals will 

 stray over our southern border from time to time, especially in 

 summer. 



The Wilson Plover resembles other plovers of its size in general 

 habits. On the sandy beaches and muddy flats of the Carolinas it is 

 to be found in flocks of six to twenty or more. Sometimes the birds 

 stray into the adjacent salt grass meadows in searcli for food. They do 

 not run so fast as other small plovers, and are more given to remaining 

 with their own kind. In fliglit they pass close to the ground or M-ater. 



The nesting season extends from early April (earliest eggs April 8) 

 (Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, 1884, I, p. 171) well into June (fresh 

 eggs June 12) (Philipp, 1910, p. 316), but the inajority of the eggs 

 are laid during the latter part of ]\Iay. The nest is a shallow de- 

 pression in the bare dry sand some distance back from the water ; 

 sometimes in a slight grassy growth. Usually it is without lining 

 of an}' sort, or it may be supplied with a few bits of drift material. 

 A typical nest measures about four inches across (Coues, 1869, p. 345) . 



The eggs number three, less commonly two. In siz(> they range 

 from 1.22 to 1.45 by 1.00 to 1.05 inches. The ground color is pale 

 olive drab of either a greenish or brownish tone, with blackish brown 



