352 Robbies, Cape Cod Piping Plover. [£)}* 



pairs and broods while on an adjacent strip of beach of about the 

 same extent nearly, if not quite, as many more were settled. 



There are probably many who are unfamiliar with the species. 

 To them, perhaps, the following, — resulting from frequent visits 

 to the little colony, — may be of interest. 



The earliest brood was running about on the morning of June 9. 

 The birds were very small. Inning hatched probably earlier in the 

 day or possibly on the day previous. The last hatching was 

 around the 16th. All. or at least all within the bounded section, 

 were in broods of three. By the middle of July old and young 

 were flying in flocks. By the last of the month the majority had 

 left; those that remained being either in small bands by them- 

 selves or else associated with the newly-arrived Ring-necks. 1 



Most birds, even those that are gregarious through the greater 

 part of the year, disperse more or less widely during the nesting 

 period. These Plovers, however, nest comparatively close together. 

 The young, therefore, of every brood from the time they are 

 hatched are not only continuously associated with one another 

 but as they range over the beach in search of food each is con- 

 stantly brought into contact with members of other broods while 

 the broods themselves gather into flocks as soon as the power of 

 flight is acquired. 



While this habitual association indicates, of course, a naturally 

 strong social disposition and consequently a more than ordinary 

 amount of sympathetic feeling, the continued companionship 

 itself could hardly fail to develop the feeling still further. Hence 

 there has been built up in the species a spirit of mutual protection. 



This communal foster feeling occasionally manifests itself in a 

 marked degree; as when, at a threat of danger, more than two 

 adults join in driving a single brood up the beach and into the 

 safety which the concealing color of the dry sand furnishes. 



It is shown again by the number of old birds that attempt to 

 distract attention from the same brood or even from a detached 

 individual by feigning; creeping off with wings outstretched and 

 fluttering, tail fanned and dragging or. if the need requires more 



1 There is, of course, no way of knowing that these later birds were from the summer 

 colony. Possibly all those had moved along and the ones seen from time to time during 

 the rest of the season were migrants. 



