UPLAND GAME BIRDS 113 
A gialitis montana. 
281. MOUNTAIN PLOVER. 
Famity : The Plovers. 
Length : 8.00-9.00. 
Adults in Summer: Upper parts grayish brown ; under parts buffy ; a 
white band across forehead and over the eye; front of crown and 
lores black. 
Adulis in Winter: Without distinct black or white on head. 
Young: Similar to winter adults, but general tone light yellowish 
brown or buffy. 
Geographical Distribution: United States bordering the Pacific; in 
winter as far south as Santa Ana. 
Breeding Range: Interior of the United States from Texas to Montana. 
Breeding Season : June and July. 
Nest : Anywhere on the open prairie ; a depression in the ground, thinly 
lined with grass. 
figgs: 3; light buffy olive, thickly speckled with lavender, brown, and 
black. Size 1.45 < 1.11. 
THrouGuout the interior plains of California west of 
the Sierra Nevada the Mountain Plover is a common 
winter resident. It can be easily recognized by its large 
size, and by the absence of rings on throat and. breast. 
Mountain Plover is one of the many misnomers, for 
although called by this name, the bird loves the prairies 
and treeless plains, and is never found at great altitudes. 
Unlike most plovers, it seems to shun the water; even 
in California it is not found along the beaches where 
its relatives feed, but hunts grasshoppers and terrestrial 
insects in the drier inland meadows. Its nest consists of 
a few grasses scratched together in a spot exposed to 
wind and weather; and here the female broods for nine- 
teen days. As soon as the down is dry on the chicks, 
they scramble off at their mother’s heels, and in twenty- 
four hours are catching bugs for themselves. 
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