THE BELTED PIPING PLOVER. 493 
It is not fair to say that the nesting site was unmarked, for what is 
easier to see than a piece of waif coal, after one’s attention has been called 
to it? And as for the nest itself, what could be more charming than a 
mosaic of flattened pebbles and bits of broken shell, to say nothing of such 
neighbors as a fish-bone and a joint and a half of straw? 
While we were examining the nest, the birds kept circling about un- 
easily at a safe distance, uttering low cries in questioning or querulous tones 
Taken at Cedar Point. Photo by the Author. 
“IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PATHLESS SAND.” 
—queep, in a variety of inflections, and a longer queeplo or queeplew. ‘They 
had the habit also of scampering rapidly for a little ways and then pulling 
up short with a compensating bob and perk like the Killdeer. When squatted 
upon the ground with the lower whites obscured, the color of the Plover’s 
back so perfectly matched that of the glowing sand as to render the bird 
almost invisible. 
All the birds seen on this occasion, to the number of four or five, were 
