1A.6 Mackay on the Black-bellied Plover. [April 



as also of the Knot {^Tri7iga caitutus)^ a large series of speci- 

 mens is imperative in order to arrive at satisfactory results, owing 

 to the diversity of their plumage as they advance from youth to 

 age. The Knot, too, is said to assume this gray and white form 

 of plumage similar to that of the young birds, during the winter. 

 I think this statement also is incorrect, but as I intend to pre- 

 sent an article on this bird later in the year, I will defer until 

 that time what I wish to say regarding its habits and plumage. 



The Black-bellied Plover is in a great degree a tide bird, seek- 

 ing a lai^ge portion of its food on those extensive sand flats left hy 

 the receding waters, which may be adjacent to marshes where the 

 grass is short, and which are interspersed with barren places 

 where there is no grass, also to uplands and fields where the grass 

 is scanty or closely fed down by sheep or cattle. It is to such 

 places that they like to resort when driven from their feeding 

 grounds on the sand flats b}' the incoming tide. They also fre- 

 quent at such times the crest and dry sand of the beaches and 

 shoals ; here they remain until the tide has sufficiently ebbed to 

 permit them again to return to feed. Their food consists largely 

 of minute shell-fish and marine insects. They feed also on the 

 larva of one of the cut-worms (Noctuidie) which they obtain on 

 the marshes ; sometimes after being shot on the Dennis marshes. 

 Cape Cod, Massachusetts, they will have some of them still in 

 their throats. They also eat the large whitish maritime 

 grasshopper {CEdipoda niaritima^. When on the flats they 

 usually seek their food near the edge of the water. They also 

 frequent such flats during the night as well as in the daytime. 

 As there is more ground on Cape Cod suitable for this bird's re- 

 quirements than in the rest of New England there would con- 

 sequently more of them collect in this locality than elsewhere. 

 In the neighborhood of the islands of Tuckernuci-c and Muskeget 

 there are also extensive sand flats at low tide, and here also they 

 used to be abundant many years ago. In the neighborhood of 

 these islands, as also on Nantvicket, they have been known to 

 remain until the end of November. On Cape Cod their favorite 

 resorts were, on the south side, the Dennis marshes, the sand flats 

 outside Chatham, and the marshes below Great Island, near 

 Hyannis, also Wellfleet on the north side. Here in former years 

 large numbers, as many as a thousand at one time, frequented 

 the Dennis marshes and the flats outside, often mingling and stand- 



