THE SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. 



489 



This Plover is found singly or in little companies, more frequently in 

 late summer or fall, and it mingles freely with other migrating waders. I 

 shall not soon forget a sight which once met my eyes on one of the Lake 

 Erie Islands in early August. A lagoon, filled with water only when the 

 East wind blew rjfc^ '* strongly, presented inviting 



stretches of ^jL8Pj^uJ3S&' warm mud, bordered by the dens- 



est cover of .JSBMa^oJ>$22Kj$fc bind-weed and rank grasses. With 



great labor Mr. Jones and I made 

 our way, unobserved, to the edge 



in Lorain County. 



SHORE BIRD INN. 



Photo by the Author. 



THIS LITTLE SWAMP LIES JUST BACK FROM THE LAKE ERIE SHORE AND WAS TENANTED, AT THE TIME THIS 

 PICTURE WAS TAKEN, BY EIGHT KINDS OF SHORE BIRDS* THE SCENE IS NOT, HOWEVER, THE ONE REFERRED TO 

 IN THE TEXT. A SEMIPALMATED PLOVER MAY BE FAINTLY DESCRIED AS HE STANDS REFLECTING NEAR THE LEFT 

 CENTER. 



of the tangle, and parting the grass blades, looked out upon eight kinds 

 of Limicol?e within a stone's throw of us. There were Semipalmated Plov- 

 ers, Killdeers, Yellow-legs, with Solitary, Pectoral, Least, and Semipal- 

 mated Sandpipers, and a chance Spotted which held itself aloof from 

 the foreigners. There they pattered and scampered, or stalked, according 

 to their kind. They dozed, or prodded, or teetered and bowed, or put up 

 a slender, tentative wing to try the motion of the air, as fancy led them, 

 until our brains were fairly awhirl with the delicious confusion of this 

 rare ornithological sight. 



