UPLAND GAME BIRDS 113 



281. MOUNTAIN PLOVER. — Mgialilu montana. 



Family : The Plovers. 



Lemth: 8.00-9.00. 



Acmlts in Summer : Upper parts grayish brown ; under parts buffy ; a 



white band across forehead and over the eye ; front of crown and 



lores black. 

 Adults in Winter: Without distinct black or white on head. 

 Young: Similar to winter adults, but general tone light yellowish 



brown or buffy. 

 Geographical Distribution : United States bordering the Pacific ; in 



winter as far south as Santa Ana. 

 Breeding Range : Interior of the United States from Texas to Montana. 

 Breeding Season : June and July. 

 Nest: Anywhere on the open prairie; a depression in the ground, thinly 



lined with grass. 

 Eggs: 3; light buffy olive, thickly speckled with lavender, brown, and 



black. Size 1.45 X l-H- 



Throughout the interior plains of California west of 

 the Sierra Nevada the Mountain Plover is a common 

 winter resident. It can be easily recognized by its large 

 size, and by the absence of rings on throat and breast. 

 Mountain Plover is one of the many misnomers, for 

 although called by this name, the bird loves the prairies 

 and treeless plains, and is never found at great altitudes. 

 Unlike most plovers, it seems to shun the water ; even 

 in California it is not found along the beaches where 

 its relatives feed, but hunts grasshoppers and terrestrial 

 insects in the drier inland meadows. Its nest consists of 

 a few grasses scratched together in a spot exposed to 

 wind and weather ; and here the female broods for nine- 

 teen days. As soon as the down is dry on the chicks, 

 they scramble off" at their mother's heels, and in twenty- 

 four hours are catching bugs for themselves. 



