ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 43 



only a short distance. This note, which is possessed by both sexes, 

 is nearly always made while the birds are in the air, and its pro- 

 duction requires apparently considerable effort ; the head and neck 

 being inclined downward, and then suddenly raised as the note is 

 uttered, the flight being at the same time momentarily checked. 

 The movements of the birds usually render it an easy matter to 

 decide whether or not they have nests in the immediate vicinity. 

 After the first alarm, those having nests at a distance disperse, 

 while the others take their course in the form of an ellipse, some- 

 times several hundred yards in length, with the object of their 

 suspicion in the centre ; and, with long sti-okes of their wings, 

 much like the flight of a Killdeer, they move back and forth. As 

 their nests are approached the length of their flight is gradually 

 lessened, until at last they are joined by the males, when the whole 

 party hover low over the intruder's head, uttering their peculiar 

 note of alarm. At this time they have an ingenious mode of mis- 

 leading the novice, by flying off" to a short distance and hovering 

 anxiously over a particular spot in the marsh, as though there were 

 concealed the objects of their solicitation. Should they be fol- 

 lowed, however, and a search be there made, the manoeuvre is re- 

 peated in another place still farther from the real location of the 

 nest. But should this ruse prove unavailing, they return and 

 seem to become fairly desperate, flying about one's head almost 

 within reach, manifesting great distress. If possible, still greater 

 agitation is shown when they have unfledged young, — they even 

 betraying their charge into the hands of the enemy by their too 

 obvious solicitude, they then hovering directly over the young, and 

 uttering their notes of distress. The young have a fine, wiry peep, 

 inaudible beyond a few feet. They are very pretty little creatures, 

 covered with yellowish-buff'-colored down, with black spots on the 

 upper surface of the body. Even when first hatched they are quite 

 lively and difficult to capture. 



About the middle of July the females suddenly disappear, and a 

 little later the males and the young also leave, with the exception 

 of a few stragglers, which occasionally remain until the last of 

 August. The main portion rarely remain as late as the 10th, 

 and are usually gone by the 5th. The males commence their fall 

 moult before they leave ; but I have never taken a specimen in 

 which the winter plumage was very evident. 



