THE NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 8l 



This species was formerly a common but is now a rare sum- 

 mer resident. On the first of August, 1897, while collecting 

 along the shore of Lake Michigan at Millers, Indiana, I was so 

 fortunate as to obtain adults and young in down of this bird. 

 On the thirteenth of June, 1902, I obtained a set of four eggs 

 and the parent birds at Millers, Indiana. (See plate VII.) 

 These are now on exhibition as a group in the Museum of The 

 Chicago Academy of Sciences. At the time of writing, June 

 10, 1904, I know of two pairs of these Plovers which are breed- 

 ing within our limits, having located their nests and eggs. I do 

 not doubt that there are other pairs nesting in the same vicinity, 

 and I sincerely hope that the nests and eggs of these rare resi- 

 dents of our area may never be found by unscrupulous collec- 

 tors. That this Plover was much more common some years 

 ago is well shown by the following statement of Mr. E. W. 

 Nelson.* "Very common summer residents along the Lake Shore, 

 breeding on the flat, pebbly beach between the sand dunes and 

 shore. Arrives the middle of April and proceeds at once to 

 breeding." At Waukegan, a few miles north of our limits, he 

 found evidences of their breeding as early as the twenty-fourth 

 of April. He also adds: "Some thirty pairs were breeding 

 along the beach at this place, within a space of two miles, and I 

 afterwards found the birds as numerous at several points along 

 the shore. Every effort was made to discover their nests with- 

 out success, although the birds were continually circling about 

 or standing at a short distance uttering an occasional note o 

 alarm. The first of July, the year previous, Dr. Velie obtained 

 young but a very few days old, at this same locality, showing 

 that there is considerable variation in the time of breeding. This 

 was also shown by specimens obtained the last of May, and 

 which 1 think were later arrivals than those found breeding in 

 April, having the ova just approaching maturity." 



This species ranges over eastern North America west to the 

 Mississippi Valley and the adjacent portions of the interior of 

 North America. It breeds from Illinois and Virginia north- 

 ward to Lake Winnipeg and Newfoundland. It winters in the 

 West Indies. According to Mr. Allen, the race circumcincta 

 (Belted Piping Plover) is not now recognized. 



fc Blrds of Northeastern Illinois, Bull, of the Essex Institute, Vol. VIII, 1876, 123. 



