BIRDS OF NEW YORK 355 



Onondaga co., N. Y. Sept. 1886. Morris Green 



Ossining, N. Y. 1898. A. K. Fisher 



Lake Ontario, N. Y. Occasional migrant. David Bruce 



Lake Ontario, N. Y. May 10, 1900. (c? " circumcincta") . Geoige F. Guelf 



Mr Chapman found lo or 12 birds living on Gardiners island in the summer 

 of 1893 [see Bird-Lore, 5: 182], and Mr Bruen saw five there in June 1904 

 [see Wilson Bui. 50. p. 18]. In 1883, Mr Butcher, with Nelson Verity, 

 hunted over a great extent of Jones' beach at South Oyster Bay, for nests 

 of this bird, but although a niomber of birds were seen, no eggs could be found. 

 On May 30th, 1887, he found a pair evidently nesting on a shelly flat at 

 Amityville beach. Mr W. W. Worthington, in 1900, wrote that both the 

 Piping plover and the belted variety breed in the vicinity of Shelter island. 

 Specimens of the Belted piping plover have been taken also at Rockaway 

 and on Shinnecock bay [see Eagle, N. O. C. Bui. 3: 94; and (Lawrence), 

 Dutcher, Auk, 2 : 37]. This variety which was christened circumcincta 

 "by Ridgway is now regarded only an instance of individual variation in 

 A . m e 1 o d a . From Butcher's Notes, supplemented from those of 

 Worthington, Helme, Braislin and Howell, it is evident that the Piping 

 plover arrives from the 3d to the 24th of March, rarely appearing as late 

 as the 12th of April; and departs for the south between the ist and the 

 20th of September. Nesting dates range from the 3d to the loth or 20th of 

 June and the 4th of July. The eggs are laid on the bare sand or bits of 

 broken shells and pebbles, are four in ntimber, creamy white, sparingly 

 speckled with blackish and obsctire lilac. Their dimensions average 

 1.25 X .95 inches. 



Mr Langille describes the Piping plover's note as follows: "Its tone 

 lias a particularly striking and musical quality. Queep, queep, queep-o, or 

 peep, peep, peep-lo, each syllable being uttered with a separate, distinct, 

 and somewhat long-drawn enunciation, may imitate its peculiar melody, the 

 tone of which is round, full, and sweet, reminding one of a high key on an 

 Italian hand organ or the hautboy in a church organ. It is always pleasing 

 to the lover of Nature's melodies, and in the still air of the evening it is 

 very impressive." 



