Waterfowl 73 



A more curious bird than any of these is the plains 

 plover, which avoids the water and seems to prefer 

 the barren plateaus and almost desert-like reaches of 

 sage-brush and alkali. Plains plovers are pretty 

 birds, and not at all shy. In fall they are fat and 

 good eating, but they are not plentiful enough to 

 be worth going after. Sometimes they are to be 

 seen in the most seemingly unlikely places for a 

 wader to be. Last spring one pair nested in a broken 

 piece of Bad Lands near my ranch, where the ground 

 is riven and twisted into abrupt, steep crests and 

 deep canyons. The soil is seemingly wholly unfitted 

 to support bird life, as it is almost bare of vegeta- 

 tion, being covered with fossil plants, shells, fishes, 

 etc. all of which objects, by the way, the frontiers- 

 man, who is much given to broad generalization, 

 groups together under the startling title of "stone 

 clams." 



VOL. IV. 



