476 GAME BIBBS OF CALIFOBNIA 



even at the edge of the waves. Often areas of considerable extent are 

 ' ' plowed up " by these birds in their active ■ probing for the sand- 

 inhabiting Crustacea and worms which constitute their food. When 

 searching for food they move about a great deal, with a distinct trot, 

 and on occasion have been seen to hop along on one leg as Torrey has 

 observed Sanderlings to do at Santa Barbara. Their movements are 

 rapid and their strides exceedingly long. At Netarts Bay, Oregon; 

 Jewett (1914, pp. 114-115) says that when running fast the strides 

 of one of these birds proved to measure six inches. One of the birds 

 will start, run three or four feet, and stop suddenly, the whole per- 

 formance occupying but a second or two. There is an abrupt upward 

 tilt of the body at intervals, and with the return movement the 

 quavering note is often uttered. In flight the birds may travel in 

 open formation, or closely massed, and the flight may be either direct, 

 or in zigzag course as with the small sandpipers. Both in flight, and 

 on the ground, their chunky appearance helps to distinguish them 

 from the small sandpipers. They are quite tame and will usually 

 permit a close approach, preferring apparently to trot along in front 

 of the observer, or off to one side, rather than to take wing. 



Torrey (1913, pp. 10-11) says of the Snowy Plover at Santa 

 Barbara : 



Every day they are here, and every day it is a pleasure to watch them; 

 now running about or standing at rest on the gray, dry sand — too close a 

 match in color for even a hawk's eyes, one would think; now squatting singly, 

 here, there, and yonder, in the footprints of horses, hardly more than a head 

 showing, one of their prettiest tricks — you may sometimes see fifty at once 

 cradled in this cozy fashion, for shelter against the wind, or by way of a 

 more comfortable siesta, or, possibly, as affording a measure of concealment; 

 and now scattered in loose order along the edge of the surf, picking up the day's 

 rations. An extraordinarily light repast this would seem to be, or, . one 

 very easily gathered, seeing how small a share of the day they spend upon it. 

 Nine times in ten you will find them doing nothing, in what looks like a 

 reposeful after-dinner mood, strikingly unlike the behavior of the common run 

 of birds. . . . 



As is true of plovers in general, the snowy ... is amazingly sudden and 

 spry in its motions, a sprinter of the first rank, starting at full speed, and 

 scampering before you, head down, till its legs fairly twinkle, they move so 

 almost invisibly fast. . . . 



As a result, perhaps, of the temperate climate of its breeding 

 range the nesting season of the Snowy Plover is very long as com- 

 pared with those of our other shore birds. Chambers took a set of 

 three eggs well advanced in incubation at Ballona, Los Angeles 

 County, April 15, 1907 (Willett, 1912a, p. 40), and Robertson (1899, 

 p. 94) records a set far advanced in incubation at Redondo, Los 

 Angeles County, April 25, 1899. Thompson (19016, p. 17) reports 

 three sets at Morro, San Luis Obispo County, August 1 (1900?), aU 



