332 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



times remaining till the loth of September, which are also the dates of its 

 departure from Long Island. It is a nearctic species, breeding from Virginia 

 and Kansas, to Nova Scotia and Alaska, and wintering in Sotith America. 



Haunts and habits. More than any other shore bird, this species, 

 as its name of Upland plover signifies, is a bird of the dry fields and pastures, 

 rarely visiting the shores or marshy lowlands. It seems to prefer dry rolling 

 plains in western New York, especially waste fields, wide pastures, and 

 even cultivated fields. On Long Island and the New England coast it 

 occurs on the grassy sand plains, as well as the baiTen hilltops of New 

 England. Mr H. L. Bowers writes, 1900, "they are very plentiful in the 

 dry swamps west of Rome, during the summer. They nest in the timothy 

 fields near by, but the old birds are never seen near the nest and will not 

 leave their eggs till nearly stepped on. They arrive April 14th and nest in 

 May." Mr George F. Guelf of Brockport writes, "they are common on the 

 level fields which extend from 4 niiles east of Clarkson, Monroe count}", 

 about 9 miles to the west, and lying about i mile north of the Ridge road." 

 Mr E. H. Short of Chili says they are becoming commoner and extending 

 their range, often nesting in cornfields, potato patches, and fallows. James 

 Savage and Hermann Grieb state that it has grown commoner within the 

 last 15 or 20 years in the vicinity of Buffalo and is rarely killed by the 

 sportsmen, as it is practically impossible to get within shooting distance 

 of the birds. The common experience of observers throughout the interior 

 of New York is that very few Upland plovers are shot, the nature of the 

 countr^' making it practically impossible to hunt it on horseback or from 

 wagons, as is often done on the western prairies. The chief enemies of the 

 bird in western New York are certainly not the gunners, but wandering 

 cats and other predacious animals, sheep and cattle which destroy its 

 eggs, late plowing and the ctiltivating of fields. 



This beautiful bird like most members of the Snipe family executes a 

 peculiar perfonnancc in the mating season. The bird mounts high in air, 

 or alights on a knoll, "a fence, or even a tree, and utters a prolonged mourn- 

 ful mellow whistle, more like the wind than like a bird's voice, which may 

 be heard even in the night, and is one of the most weird and never to be 



