Piping Plover. 219 
Atlantic seaboard, and at last reaches in the nights of early 
April the sandy beaches of our Jersey coast. In flocks ofa 
dozen individuals they run about the sand in a most lively 
manner, and utter all the while a variety of notes more or 
less pleasing, blending as they do with the deep-toned bass 
of the ocean. When this sound, welling up from a dozen 
throats, is heard in the dark it is particularly striking, as wild 
and weird as the whistling of a wind at sea through the rig- 
ging of a ship. 
But these flocks soon disperse into pairs to breed. Slight 
depressions in the dry sand, and always in the midst of 
groups of broken colored shells, but out of the reach of the 
maddened waves, rather than in muddy, marshy places back 
of the beach-line, serve them for nests. This nesting among 
clustered shells seemingly points to a love for the beautiful. 
But may it not be that the shells but mark the various nest- 
positions in the unbroken waste of sand? We incline to this 
opinion. There is so much diversity manifested in the size 
of the groups and in the arrangement and coloration of the 
individual shells that comprise them, that no very great diffi- 
culty should be experienced by the several pairs nesting in 
the same locality in knowing each other’s nest. 
While the birds are concerned with the cares of brood- 
raising, which is usually towards the close of May or the 
beginning of June, they confine their feeding to the damp, 
wet sand. Between it and the dry a clear line of separation 
is plainly noticeable. It is only when they are ready for the 
home duties that they are seen to resort to aerial navigation. 
Even when on the very boundary-line of the two stretches of 
sand, the wet and the dry, and with the nest almost in sight, 
they are known to assume wing, taking due care, however, 
to alight before they have fairly reached the spot. In flight 
an advantage, that of a more commanding view, is acquired, 
which walking does not give. But in leaving the nest for 
food, or for any other purpose, they, as before, walk some 
distance away before they venture to fly. There is a seeming 
