1S92.] Mackay oh the Black-bellied Plover. 1 47 



ing and feeding on the marshes for hours together, with the Knots 

 or Redbreasts {Tringa canutiis), Turnstones {Arenaria in- 

 ^erpres) , and Red-backed Sandpipers (^Tringa alp inafacijica). 

 Some of the flocks were composed of these four kinds of birds, it 

 being no very uncommon thing, after dischai'ging the gun at a flock, 

 to gather up some of each, and many an old Black-breast has been 

 inveigled up to the decoys within gunshot by being in company 

 with its less suspicious companions. 



While the Knot ( Z". canutus) mingles freely with the Black- 

 bellied Plover here, as elsewhere, those of each kind composing 

 one flock seem to keep a little apart. Often when alighting the 

 Knots will be all on one side just a little distance away by them- 

 selves, and the Black-bellied Plovers by themselves. 



[n the autumn I have occasionally seen a flock composed of 

 American Golden Plover ( C. dominicus) and Black-bellied 

 Plover. One flock I have in mind was composed of fifteen of 

 each of these birds. They remained together on Nantucket Island 

 for a week or more, feeding on the flats together and then coming 

 to the same field when driven ofi'by the incoming tide. On Nan- 

 tucket Island some thirty-five or forty years ago the Black-bellied 

 Plover frequented the uplands, there being but little marsh land 

 adapted to them ; to such uplands they became much attached. 

 Mingled with tlieni would be Turnstones (^Arenaria hiterpres') ., 

 Ringneck Plover {y^gialitis semipahnata) y^wA. Peeps, all con- 

 gregating together on the high ground or plains adjacent to the 

 north shore of this island, such flocks often aggregating several 

 hundred. 



On these islands (with one exception hereafter described) , as 

 also on Cape Cod, they have been noted year by year in lessened 

 numbers until few are seen now as compared with former years. 

 In looking for the cause of this falling oft' in numbers I am not 

 wholly in accord with the statement which I have frequently 

 heard expressed, that it is owing to the numbers killed during their 

 migration north and south along this coast. The aggregate num- 

 ber of these birds killed in New England for many years past is not 

 in my judgment sufficient to have been alone the cause of such a 

 perceptible difference. I lean to the view that for a considerable 

 number of years past they have been sufficiently harassed on their 

 arrival and during their sojourn to have caused them to forsake 

 such places, and they pass by, without stopping at those localities 



