Nee General Notes. 213 
which were young birds. They seemed at home and at ease in the field. 
As I walked towards them at a distance they stood erect and moved 
about; after I disappeared from their view all but two or three of them 
squatted with their breasts resting on the ground. 
On August 31, I drove pretty much all over the Plover ground on 
Nantucket without seeing a bird. There was a gentle southwest air in 
the morning, with a squall accompanied with rain late in the afternoon — 
about five o’clock. Early in the evening I was told that a flock of Plovers 
had been seen coming in towards the north shore of Nantucket from the 
Sound, and still later I was again informed of several other flocks being 
heard, for it was now about 7.30 o’clock, dark, and raining moderately, 
accompanied with but little wind. 
It would seem that birds of various kinds commenced to seek land at 
about this time, for considerable numbers were soon heard calling as they 
flew around the electric lights located at the tops of the high poles in 
various parts of the town. This calling was nearly continuous up to one 
o’clock, midnight, and I have only two or three times before heard such 
prolonged and continual calling of the birds. They were apparently 
bewildered, and seemed to pass around a certain light for awhile, and then 
pass to another, later coming back to the first one. I therefore think we 
heard the same birds over and over again. In order to substantiate this I 
made inquiry the next day of some of the life-saving crews located at 
different parts of the island, as also of others, but none of them had heard 
of any birds, and they were all apparently in a restricted area over the 
town. While no birds were seen déstzuctly, many of the call notes were 
recognized by others and by me, those of the Greater Yellow-legs 
(Totanus melanoleucus) predominating. There were also the Smaller 
Yellow-leg (Totanus flavipes), Golden Plovers (Charadrius dominicus), 
Hudsonian Curlews (WMumenius hudsonicus) (heard only twice), Black- 
bellied Plovers (Sguatarola sguatarola), Terns and Peeps. Several of the 
sportsmen told me they heard the notes of the Eskimo Curlew 
(Numentus borealis). Iam inclined to the opinion that they must have 
been mistaken, inasmuch as I was up until half past eleven o’clock P.M. 
and did not hear any of them. It was with the liveliest anticipations for 
the next day’s shooting that I retired for the night. I arose at three 
o’clock A. M., and my disappointment can be imagined better than told 
when on looking out I found that the weather had cleared, the stars. were 
shining and the little air that was moving was from the zortk. Although 
hopeless, I was driving over the western Plover ground at daylight, 
hoping I might find a few tired birds. Seeing absolutely no birds in this 
quarter up to eight o’clock, I picked up my decoys and drove eastward 
where I remained until 1.30 p.m. and then returned home without having 
seen a bird. On the way I saw a number of sportsmen, none of whom, I 
learned on inquiry, had seen anything. Ad/the birds had passed on with- 
out stopping. This was the first defined migratory movement this season 
of birds going southward. 
