BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 1 69 



73. .^gialitis semipalmata (Bonap.). 

 Semipalmated Plover. Ring-necked Plover. Ring-neck. 



Transient visitor, seldom seen in spring but formerly common in autumn. 



SEASONAL occurrence. 



May 25, 1871, several seen, Longfellow Marshes, W. Brewster. 



August 4, 1875, twelve or more seen, Fresh Pond, W. Brewster. 



August 10 — September 15. 

 September 26, 1901, five seen, Charles River Marshes, W. Brewster. 



The pretty little Ring-necked Plover used to occur commonly and very 

 regularly, in August and early September, throughout the salt marshes along 

 Charles River all the way from Whittemore Point, Cambridgeport, to the Water- 

 town Arsenal. It also visited some of our larger ponds, especially during seasons 

 when the water was exceptionally low. On September 2, 1869, I met with a 

 large flock scattered along the western shore of Sherman's Pond, Waltham. On 

 August 4, 1875, I saw a dozen or more birds feeding, in company with great num- 

 bers of Semipalmated Sandpipers and a few Least Sandpipers, on a sandy flat in 

 Cambridge Nook, Fresh Pond ; here I shot two Ring-necks on September 6 of 

 the year last mentioned. 



I have no evidence to offer that the Semipalmated Plover has ever 

 been noted at Spy Pond or the Mystic Ponds, but Mr. John H. Hardy, Jr., 

 writes me that he has taken it at Great Meadow. Of its occurrence in spring I 

 can give but one definite record — that of several birds which I saw flying about 

 over the Longfellow Marshes on May 25,1871. Its visits in summer and autumn 

 have been becoming less and less frequent of late, owing, no doubt, to the fact 

 that most of its former feeding grounds have been drained or filled. Indeed, 

 within the past few years, I have seen it only in limited numbers, on the muddy 

 banks of Charles River near the Cambridge Hospital. I am assured by Dr. A. 

 H. Tattle, however, that it continues to appear rather numerously in late summer 

 about the Back Bay Basin, where it feeds on the oozy flats exposed at low tide 

 and also to some extent in depressions of the filled land on the Cambridge side 

 of the river near Harvard Bridge, where surface water often collects in shallow 

 pools after heavy rains. 



