SHORE BIRDS 145 



the sandy beach and adjacent flats and uplands. During 

 migration their flight, especially in the spring, is hurried, 

 direct, and in the night, only stopping to rest and feed 

 during the day, returning, it is said, in a more leisurely 

 manner and largely along the seashore. When on the 

 ground, these birds run about on unbended legs, the bodies 

 in a horizontal position, and heads drawn do^vn. While 

 sleeping or resting they usually sit or stand on one leg. 



The flight of a flock of Golden Plovers is described by 

 Goss as swaft and strong, sweeping over the prairies in a 

 compact, wa^y form, at times skimming close to the ground, 

 then high in the air — an ever-changing, circling course, 

 whistling as they go, and on ahghting raising their wings 

 until the tips nearly touch, then slowly folding them back, 

 a habit which is quite common with them as they move 

 about the ground. 



Plovers eat grasshoppers, beetles, and manj' forms of 

 insect hfe; small berries are also a part of their diet. 



The eggs are deposited the latter part of May, in a 

 small depression among the moss and dried grass of a small 

 knoll, and at times a slight structure is made of dried grass. 

 Four eggs are laid, of a pale j-ellowish ground color, with 

 very dark, well-defined umber brown spots scattered pro- 

 fusely over the shell. 



KILLDEER 



By far the commonest of American plovers, it breeds 

 throughout the entire United States and most of Canada, 

 and winters from the Gulf States to northern South Amer- 

 ica. A suspicious, restless, noisy, uneasy bird, always on 



