Shore-bird Shooting 471 



like a skylark, uttering its love-song as it rises 

 higher and higher, and then slowly returns to the 

 ground. 



PIPING PLOVER 

 ^ {^gialitis meloda) 



Adult male — Between the eyes, over the forehead, is a band of 

 black and another about the back of the neck and sides of the 

 breast ; forehead, neck, above the broken, black band, and entire 

 under parts, white ; top of head, ear-coverts, back, and wings, 

 ashy gray tinged with brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts, white ; 

 primaries, dark brown ; shafts and inner webs, white ; tail, white 

 at base marked by a subterminal black band on all but the two 

 outer feathers, which are white ; bill, yellowish orange with a 

 black tip ; legs and feet, yellowish orange ; iris, brown. 



Female — Similar to the male in plumage, but the black bars have 

 a brownish hue and are more indistinct. 



Young — Without the black band; collar around the back of the 

 neck, ashy brown. 



Measurements — Length, 7 inches ; wing, 4.50 inches ; tail, 2 inches ; 

 culmen, .50 inch ; tarsus, .90 inch ; middle toe, .75 inch. 



Eggs — Four in number; ground color, light cream, over which are 

 fine markings of black ; measure 1.20 by i inches. 



Habitat — Breeds from the coast of Florida, locally, north to the 

 Magdalen Islands and, probably, southern Labrador, Lake Erie, 

 Lake Michigan, and in Cuba and the Bahamas. Winters in the 

 Bahamas, West Indies, Florida, and Texas, and accidentally in 

 Massachusetts. Recorded from Bermuda, Greenland, Hudson 

 Bay, and Alaska. In migration east to the Bermudas and west 

 to North Dakota and probably Manitoba. 



Common throughout the eastern United States, 

 and breeding through the maritime provinces of 

 Canada to Florida, this bird frequents the sandy 

 stretches of ocean beach, nesting among the drift 

 on the sand. The eggs so resemble in color their 



