Wayne: Birds of South Carolina. 61 



This species is a beach bird, but only breeds near an inlet, 

 where there is a mixture of sand and mud, upon which it is de- 

 pendent during the breeding season. 



As soon as the birds arrive they begin to mate and four or five 

 males start in pursuit of a female, either flying or running over the 

 sand and uttering their plaintive whistle. 



In some forward seasons the eggs are laid by April 27, but in 

 the latitude of Charleston, or a few miles to the northward, the 

 birds generally lay about the second week in May. The nest is 

 merely a hollow in the sand, among shells or under a small mari- 

 time plant, and generally near high water mark. The full com- 

 plement of eggs is invariably three. They are creamy white or 

 buff, finely spotted (or sometimes blotched) with blackish brown, 

 and measure 1 .45 X 1 .05 . The young, which run shortly after they 

 are hatched, are generally seen about May 25. Only one brood 

 is raised unless the eggs have been destroyed, when the birds 

 will lay again and again until a brood is raised. 



Although Audubon states 'that "great numbers are at all times 

 to be met with from Carolina to the mouths of the Mississippi, and 

 in all these places I have found it the whole year round," I have 

 never seen one of these birds during the late autumn, much less 

 winter, on any part of this coast, and he certainly was in error, as 

 this species departs long before the advent of cool weather. 



Wilson's Plover is a very gentle species, especially in the breed- 

 ing season, and can easily be approached to within a few feet 

 when the eggs are laid or when the young are hatched. It is 

 very solicitous in regard to the safety of its young, and in order 

 to lead one away it will fall over, or beat the sand with its wings, as 

 many birds are known to do when their young are in danger. 



In winter this species is found as far south as Brazil. 



FAMILY APHRIZID^: SURF-BIRDS AND TURNSTONES. 



123. Arenaria interpres morinella(Linn.). Ruddy Turnstone. 



The Turnstone is a permanent resident on the coast, for I have 

 seen or taken it in every month of the year, but it does not breed. 

 It is not uncommon to see many individuals in full nuptial plum- 

 age all through June and I have seen nine high-plumaged birds 

 on June 11, 1895, and one on June 12, 1905. The birds in imma- 

 ture or winter plumage, however, are seen in June more frequently 



' Birds of America, V, 215. 



