BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 251 
and use all the artifices employed on such occasions to induce the intruder 
to set out in pursuit. The young leave the nest almost immediately 
after they are hatched, and shouid one approach them the parents be- 
come very clamorous, and fly around until they are assured of the safety 
of their brood, when they take a long flight, and disappear for a time. 
Unless during the breeding season, they are exceedingly shy ; but their 
anxiety for their young renders them forgetful of the danger which 
they incur in approaching man. The young, when two or three weeks 
old, run with great celerity, and squat in perfect silence when appre- 
hensive of danger. When they are able to fly, several families unite, 
and betake themselves to the sea-shore, where other flocks gradually 
arrive, until at length, on the approach of cold weather, almost ail of 
them begin to move southward. Aithough the great body of these 
~ Plovers pass beyond the limits of the United States, some remain on 
the shores of the Floridas during winter. In their habits they are more 
maritime than the Golden Plovers, which, when migrating, generally 
advance over the land. 
The flight of this bird is swift, strong, and well sustained. When 
roaming over large sand-bars, they move in compact bodies, whirling 
round, and suddenly veering, so as alternately to exhibit their upper and 
lower parts. At this time old and young are intermixed, and many of 
the former have lost the black so conspicuous on the neck and breast 
in summer. During winter, or as long as they frequent the sea-shore, 
they feed on marine insects, worms, and small shell-fish ; and when 
they are in the interior, on grasshoppers and other insects, as well as 
berries of various kinds, on which they fatten so as to become tolerably 
good eating. 
This species is known in Pennsylvania by the name of Whistling 
Field Plover, suggested by the loud and modulated cries which it emits 
during the love-season. In the Eastern States, as well as in Kentucky, 
it is called the Bull-head ; but in the South its most common appellation 
is Black-bellied Plover. I have seen it, though sparingly, along the 
shores of the Ohio, probably during its passage from the north. 
As its habits agree with those of the Plovers generally, and its form 
is similar to that of the Golden Plover and other species, the only dif- 
ference being the presence of a rudimentary hind toe, it was scarcely 
necessary to distinguish it generically from Charadrius, as many recent 
authors have done. 
