Piping Plover. 221 



than ordinary solicitude, the little Plovers making most vio- 

 lent demonstrations and pleading piteously when they are 

 approached. The mother employs all the well-known arti- 

 fices, such as lameness, inability to fly, to draw the intruder 

 away from the nest. The young run as soon as they leave 

 the egg, and are great adepts at hiding, squatting, and re- 

 maining motionless. Their downy plumage so assimilates 

 them to the sand that unless they reveal themselves by 

 moving, it requires a very keen eye to distinguish them from 

 the numberless tufts that are scattered about the higher 

 reaches of the beach. 



Although so essentially a bird of the sea-shore, yet in 

 August many scores of these birds come up the Delaware 

 River as far as tide-water extends, feeding upon the mud- 

 flats and gravel-bars, and occasionally wending their way 

 up along the courses of the creeks until they find them- 

 selves well into the country. It is interesting to watch them 

 as they run in and out among the little hills and hollows of the 

 mud in quest of their prey. They are happy, light-hearted 

 fellows, who do not begrudge, when some racy tidbit has 

 rewarded their hunting, to pipe a few notes of thanks to Him 

 who watches as tenderly over them as over the mighty lords 

 of the earth. 



