144 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



Her mate stands motionless, but not unmoved, hard by, not ventur- 

 ing even to chirp the note of encouragement and sympathy she loves 

 to hear. 



" Alas ! hope fades, and dies out, leaving only fear ; there is no 

 further concealment we are almost upon the nest almost trodden 

 upon, she springs up with a piteous cry and flies a little distance, 

 re-alighting, almost beside herself with grief ; for she knows only too 

 well what is to be feared at such a time. If there were hope for her 

 that her nest were undiscovered, she might dissimulate, and try to 

 entice us away by those touching deceits which maternal love in- 

 spires. But we are actually bending over her treasures, and deception 

 would be in vain ; her grief is too great to be witnessed unmoved, 

 still less portrayed ; nor can we, deaf to her beseeching, change it to 

 despair. We have seen and admired the home there is no excuse 

 for making it desolate ; we have not so much as touched one of the 

 precious eggs, and will leave them to her renewed and patient care." 



It is found as a migrant in Ontario and the North- West as far as 

 Alaska. In the latter region it is rare, none having been found on 

 the islands of Behring Sea. 



SUBGENUS PELIDNA CUVIER. 

 TRINGA ALPINA PACIFICA (CouEs). 



102. Red-backed Sandpiper. (243a) 



Adult in summer : Above, chestnut, each feather with a central black field, 

 and most of them whitish-tipped; rump and upper tail coverts, blackish; tail 

 feathers and wing coverts, ashy-gray; quills, dusky with pale shafts; second- 

 aries, mostly white; and inner primaries, edged with the same; under parts, 

 white; belly, with a broad jet black area; breast and jugulum, thickly streaked 

 with dusky; bill and feet, black. Adult in winter, and young .-Above, plain 

 ashy-gray, with dark shaft-lines, with or without red or black traces; below, 

 white; little or no trace of black on the belly; jugulum, with a few dusky 

 streaks and an ashy suffusion. Length, 8-9 inches; wing, 4J-5; tail, 2-2J ; 

 bill, H-lf, longer than head, compressed at base, rather depressed at the end; 

 tibia, bare about ^; tarsus, 1, or rather less. 



HAB. North America in general, breeding far north, and straggling to 

 eastern coast of Asia. 



Nest, in the vicinity of lakes and ponds, a hollow in the ground lined with a 

 few withered leaves. 



Eggs, three or four, clay color, spotted, stained and blotched with chestnut. 



This is the Black-heart Plover of sportsmen. It is a regular 



