Plovers 



similar tastes, is partly nocturnal in habits; but grasshoppers, 

 crickets, and other insects talce it abroad much by day. It mi- 

 grates chiefly at night, the hilldeer, hildeer, resounding from the 

 very stars. 



Semipalmated Plover 



fySgialitis semipalmata) 



Cabled also: RING-NECKED OR RING PLOVER 



Length — 6.75 to 7 inches. A trifle larger than the English spar- 

 row. 



Male and Female — Upper parts brownish gray ; front of crown, 

 band across base of bill, sides of head below eye, and band on 

 breast, that almost encircles the neck, black; forehead, throat, 

 ring around neck, parts of outer tail feathers, and under parts 

 white. Brownish gray replaces the black in winter plumage. 

 Bill black, orange at base; ring around eye bright orange; 

 yellow toes, webbed at the base. 



Range — North America at large; nesting from Labrador and 

 Alaska northward to Arctic sea; winters from Gulf states to 

 Bermuda, West Indies, Peru, and Brazil. 



Season — Spring and autumn migrant; April, May; July, August, 

 September; most plentiful in late summer and early autumn. 



Closely associated with the friendly little sandpipers, these 

 small plovers likewise haunt the beaches, their plumage in autumn 

 being precisely the color of the wet sand they constantly run 

 about on in small scattered flocks. When the tide goes out, 

 their activities increase. Birds that have been hiding in the 

 marshes and sand dunes now trip a light measure over the ex- 

 posed sand bars and mud flats, leaving little tracks that may not 

 be distinguished from those of the sand ox-eye or semipalmated 

 sandpiper that hunts with them, although the plover has only 

 three half webbed toes. The small, slightly elevated fourth toe 

 of the ox-eye is only faintly evident at times in its tracks. 



Tiny forms chase out after the receding waves, running in 

 just in advance of the frothing ripples that do not quite overtake 

 them, although the plovers almost never spring to wing as sand- 

 pipers do when a drenching threatens, but place all their ^ust in 

 their fleet legs. With such feet as theirs, they must be able to 

 swim ; but who ever sees them in deep water ? More silent, too, 



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