Piping Plover. 2 1 9 



Atlantic seaboard, and at last reaches in the nights of early 

 April the sandy beaches of our Jersey coast. In flocks of a 

 dozen individuals they run about the sand in a most lively 

 manner, and utter all the while a variety of notes more or 

 less pleasing, blending as they do with the deep-toned bass 

 of the ocean. When this sound, welling up from a dozen 

 throats, is heard in the dark it is particularly striking, as wild 

 and weird as the whistling of a wind at sea through the rig- 

 ging of a ship. 



But these flocks soon disperse into pairs to breed. Slight 

 depressions in the dry sand, and always in the midst of 

 groups of broken colored shells, but out of the reach of the 

 maddened waves, rather than in muddy, marshy places back 

 of the beach-line, serve them for nests. This nesting among 

 clustered shells seemingly points to a love for the beautiful. 

 But may it not be that the shells but mark the various nest- 

 positions in the unbroken waste of sand? We incline to this 

 opinion. There is so much diversity manifested in the size 

 of the groups and in the arrangement and coloration of the 

 individual shells that comprise them, that no very great diffi- 

 culty should be experienced by the several pairs nesting in 

 the same locality in knowing each other's nest. 



While the birds are concerned with the cares of brood- 

 raising, which is usually towards the close of May or the 

 beginning of June, they confine their feeding to the damp, 

 wet sand. Between it and the dry a clear line of separation 

 is plainly noticeable. It is only when they are ready for the 

 home duties that they are seen to resort to aerial navigation. 

 Even when on the very boundary-line of the two stretches of 

 sand, the wet and the dry, and with the nest almost in sight, 

 they are known to assume wing, taking due care, however, 

 to alight before they have fairly reached the spot. In flight 

 an advantage, that of a more commanding view, is acquired, 

 which walking does not give. But in leaving the nest for 

 food, or for any other purpose, they, as before, walk some 

 distance away before they venture to fly. There is a seeming 



