I98 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



that regularly breeds in Essex County. It lays its eggs, three or four in num- 

 ber, in a depression in the sand among the dunes, the abundance of tracks in 

 the neighborhood leading the searcher to the desired spot. The bird adopts the 

 usual tactics to entice the intruder from the nest, running about in a distracted 

 manner as if the wings were broken. Selous : describes a similar action on the 

 part of the English Snipe. 



During the migrations, the Piping Plover is a bird of the beach, and is 

 found singly or in flocks of from three to six, generally with other shore birds, 

 especially the Semipalmated Plover. The latter bird it resembles closely in 

 habits, although it shows a greater preference for the dry sand than does that 

 Plover. The note of the Piping Plover is a sweet and mournful whistle, — the 

 call of a dying race, — in comparison with which the whistle of the Semipal- 

 mated Plover is cheerful and business-like. The note is double and also at times 

 single. 



The Piping Plover is of the same size as the Semipalmated species but is 

 easily distinguished from that bird by its incomplete neck-ring, and its much 

 paler colors. In fact it appears like a faded ghost of the Semipalmated Plover. 

 Mr. Hoffmann 2 well expresses it when he says that the Semipalmated Plover is 

 the color of the wet sand, the Piping Plover the color of the dry sand. 



129 [277a] .ffigialitis meloda circumcincta Ridgw. 

 Belted Piping Plover. 



Accidental transient visitor from the west. 



In the mounted collection of the Boston Society of Natural History there 

 is a male bird, taken at Lynn, having a complete ring, and a female with a ring 

 nearly complete. As no dates are given, both of these may be spring specimens, 

 and might be considered unusually full-plumaged specimens of meloda. There 

 is, however, in the collection of the Peabody Academy, an autumn specimen, a 

 male, taken at Ipswich on August 1 8th, in which the ring is fairly complete. 

 On August 4th, 1903, in a flock of Semipalmated Plover and six Piping Plover, 

 I observed carefully with a glass one of the latter that had a complete ring. I 

 unfortunately failed to secure him. On August 26th, 1904, Mr. T. M. Wardley 

 shot on Coffin's Beach and kindly gave to me, a Piping Plover with a complete 



1 Edmund Selous: Bird Watching, p. 60, 1901. 



2 Ralph Hoffmann : A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York, p. 255, 1904. 



