THE BEETLEHEAD PLOVER 73 
where a moment since the flock was busily 
feeding, and seeing them not, soon discovers 
them two hundred yards away, apparently just 
as ready to tease him as before. They seem 
less suspicious of a boat, however, and will 
sometimes permit a gunner to get within easy 
range in this way. The smaller flocks in the 
fall will decoy quite readily or come with eager 
questionings to the mimicry of their whistling 
note. 
By the middle of June they are nearly all on 
their breeding grounds, mostly in those ice- 
bound regions of the north, where the lonely 
wastes for a few brief months are warmed by 
the sun into a semblance of summer. Here are 
the homes of the myriads of birds whose pass- 
ing hosts spend a brief season in our land to 
feed and rest from their journeyings. Among 
these the Beetleheads are numbered, and in 
such solitudes their young families are reared 
and trained up to the strength needful for their 
long flights. 
A shallow hole scooped out in the sand and 
lined with dry grass and moss constitutes the 
home of this, the finest of the plover family; 
and the nest, when ready for the hatching, us- 
