BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



I 97 



on the upper part of the beach, their heads turned to one side and thrust into 

 the feathers of the back. There are always a few birds awake and on the look- 

 out, and by close watching one may see even those apparently asleep, open their 

 eyes occasionally. Ring-necks also sleep with heads sunk down between the 

 shoulders. Their sleepiness in the day is accounted for by the fact that they 

 feed and migrate by night as well as by day (see pages 28 and 56). 



Like all shore birds also, the Ring-neck is often exceedingly fat in the 

 autumn and I have known the fat of the breast to split open when the bird 

 struck the ground after being shot when flying at a height. The fat is not only 

 everywhere under the skin but it envelops all the viscera, and the liver is often 

 pale from fatty infiltration. How birds under these circumstances are able to 

 fly so vigorously on their long migrations, or even to fly at all is certainly a 

 mystery. 



The call of the Ring-neck is a clear, rather plaintive whistle of two notes, — 

 very distinctive. When calling to others as they alight, or when standing on the 

 sand, they often emit a single note, at times clear and sweet, at times harsh and 

 rasping. 



Ring-necks are noticeably larger than Semipalmated Sandpipers, their 

 frequent associates. In flying, they show a faint white line on the wing which 

 contrasts with their brownish wings and backs. Their neck-ring is noticeable 

 both when the bird is flying and when it is walking, and the orange yellow of 

 their legs and base of the bill may be seen on close scrutiny. In the young, 

 which arrive about August 17th, this yellow color is paler and rather dirty, and 

 the ring is gray instead of glossy black as in the adult. 



128 [277] ^Egialitis meloda (Ord). 

 Piping Plover. 



Rare summer resident, not uncommon transient visitor ; April 24 to 

 September 18. 



Eggs: May 20. 



As a summer resident this bird is certainly less common than it was twenty- 

 five years ago, but its numbers as a migrant appear to me unchanged ; it has 

 never been common in my experience. Putnam, 1 in his 1856 list, calls it rare. 



With the exception of the Spotted Sandpiper, this is the only shore bird 



1 F. W. Putnam: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 1, p. 2f6, 1856. 



