the Black-bellied Plover 



Taken at Sandyland 



GRAY PLOVERS 



Photo by the Author 



a heavy blanket of fat, a traveler's larder, which supplies the needful 

 caloric consumed by the powerful pectoral muscles until the bird is safe 

 within the tropics. These plovers respond to decoys, and may be "tolled" 

 in by the easily imitated whistle. It is, however, one of the wariest of 

 birds to eye, under persecution ; and from the circumstance of its migrating 

 chiefly along the sea-coast, where it is able to put out in case of danger, 

 it has measurably escaped the doom which has overwhelmed many of 

 our Shore-birds. 



The economist finds nothing to condemn in the habits of the Beetle- 

 head, and something to commend in that it feasts heavily upon grass- 

 hoppers as often as it visits the uplands. It is with us, however, chiefly 

 a beach bird and, according to Knight, its food "consists of small mollusks, 

 worms, small crustaceans, brittle-stars, small holothuria, and similar 

 material left by the ebbing tide, varied by more or less insects and larvae 

 picked up in the marshes at high tide." I have myself seen them seize 

 pieces of kelp stranded upon the beach and thrash them about, apparently 

 for the purpose of dislodging clinging mollusks. At other times they will 

 feed furtively, by little snatches and quick recoveries, as they retreat 

 along the beach. 



I2Q2 



