1 8 Mack AY o>i the Eskimo Ciirle-.v. [January 



apparently looking it over, generally standing motionless for quite 

 a little while after alighting, which, owing to their general color 

 approximating so closely to the withered grass, renders it ditlicult 

 at times to i)erceive them. I have had a flock of fifty or sixty 

 alio'ht within thirty yards of me, and have been unable to make 

 out more than two or three birds. If disturbed they will fre- 

 quently alight again at no great distance, if not previously har- 

 assed, and under the same conditions they can be approached at 

 all times, for thev are either very tame or very shy.* They seek 

 out, and are found in, the same localities selected by the Golden 

 Plover (see Auk, \'<j1. VIII, p. 17) with which they generally 

 associate if any arc in the vicinity, there always being a strong 

 friendship between them. They are not so active as the Plover ; 

 on the ground they appear less inclined to move about, especially 

 after landing and during rainy weather when I have at times no- 

 ticed them standing on the ground quite close together, every 

 bird headed to the wind, with heads and necks drawn down and 

 resting on their backs, with the rain running ofl' their tails. At 

 such times they could be approached on foot to within half a gun- 

 shot, showing little fear. 



Thev arc said to make a whistle somewhat similar to the Hud- 

 sonian Curlew's {Nuruoiius /nidsonicus) , only very much finer 

 in tone. The only note I have ever heard them make is a kind 

 of squeak, very much like one of the cries of Wilson's Tern 

 (ySterna hir2indo)^ only finer in tone. If one or more of these 

 birds are wounded, after shooting at a flock, they will often keep 

 calling and jumping up, tr\ ing to fly, which causes the remainder 

 to hover over or in near proximity to the wounded ones, thus fre- 

 quently afibrding an additional shot. They are very gregarious, 

 and unless much harassed will come with the greatest confidence 

 to either Golden Plover, or Curlew decoys. 



The young birds do not as a rule make their appearance in 

 New England before the eighth or tenth of September, con- 

 tinuing up to about October first. They appear very gentle and 



*While on Nantucket Island they seem to prefer the ground near the headlands ad- 

 joining the beach shore, even among the beach grass, probably on account of the 

 abundance of the large gray sand spider {Lycosa) which lives in holes in the sand in 

 such localities. They feed on this spider and also eat the seeds of the poverty-grass 

 {HudsoHia tomentosa Nutt.), especially when it is on ground which has been burnt 

 over. 



