144- BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



Her mate stands motionless, but not unmoved, hard by, not ventur- 

 ing even to chirp the note of encouragement and sympathy she loves 

 to hear. 



"Alas! hope fades, and dies out, leaving only fear; there is no 

 further concealment — we are almost upon the nest — almost trodden 

 upon, she springs up with a piteous cry and flies a little distance, 

 re-alighting, almost beside herself with grief; for she knows only too 

 well what is to be feared at such a time. If there were hope for her 

 that her nest were undiscovered, she might dissimulate, and try to 

 entice us away by those touching deceits which maternal love in- 

 spires. But we are actually bending over her treasures, and deception 

 would be in vain ; her grief is too great to be witnessed unmoved, 

 still less portrayed ; nor can we, deaf to her beseeching, change it to 

 despair. We have seen and admired the home — there is no excuse 

 for making it desolate ; we have not so much as touched one of the 

 precious eggs, and will leave them to her renewed and patient care." 



It is found as a migrant in Ontario and the North-West as far as 

 Alaska. In the latter region it is rare, none having been found on 

 the islands of Behrins; Sea. 



Subgenus PELIDNA Cuvier. 

 TRINGA ALPINA PACIFICA (Coues). 



102. Red-backed Sandpiper. (243«) 



Adult in -siunmer: — Above, chestnut, each feather with a central black field, 

 and most of them whitish-tipped; rump and upper tail coverts, blackish; tail 

 feathers and wing coverts, ashy-gray; quills, dusky with pale shafts; second- 

 aries, mostly white ; and inner primaries, edged with the same ; under parts, 

 white; belly, with a broad jet lilack area; breast and jugulum, thickly streaked 

 with dusky; bill and feet, black. Adult in. winter, and young: — Above, plain 

 ashy-graj^, with dark shaft-lines, with oi- without red or black traces ; below, 

 white ; little or no trace of black on the belly ; jugulum, witli a few dusky 

 sti-eaks and an ashy suffusion. Length, 8-9 inches; wing, 4J-5; tail, 2-2J ; 

 bill, H-lf, longer than head, compressed at base, i-ather depressed at the end; 

 tibia, bare about \ ! tarsus, I , or rather less. 



Hab. — North America in general, breeding far north, and straggling to 

 eastern coast of Asia. 



Nest, in the vicinity of lakes and ponds, a liollow in the ground lined with a 

 few withered leaves. 



Eggs, three or four, clay color, spotted, stained and blotched with chestnut. 



This is the Black-heart Plover of sportsmen. It is a regular 



