184 FEATHERED GAME 



these birds as anything but plovers, or would 

 know what bird was meant if called anything 

 but a ^'Winter," or a ''Summer, Yellow-leg 

 Plover, ' ' so general is the use of these names in 

 New England. 



The ''Winters" seldom gather into large 

 flocks of their own kind save in the spring mi- 

 grations, generally preferring to associate with 

 other species, as the "Summers," smaller sand- 

 pipers, grass-birds, etc. They are found most- 

 ly on the soft, oozy edges of the "pondholes" in 

 the marshes, along the muddy "flats" of the 

 tide-waters and in the bog holes of the fresh 

 water swamps. In the far north, on the bank 

 of inland pond or marsh, they build their nests 

 and raise their broods of four or five long- 

 legged, odd-looking youngsters which run about 

 almost from birth, following their parents in a 

 scramble for daily rations, escaping danger by 

 squatting down in the long grass and keeping 

 perfectly quiet until the coast is clear. 



The ' ' Winter ' ' arrives in New England about 

 the middle of April and breeds from this lati- 

 tude northward, most of them going further on. 

 The nest, though sometimes built on an old 

 stump, is oftener a slight hollow scooped out of 



