FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 273 



alert, and experienced indeed must the sportsman be who can with any marked 

 degree of success allay its ever-present suspicion. The clear, liquid, several-syllabled 

 call note is not difficult of imitation, but the bird does not always respond. 



This species builds its nest of a small quantity of grass and leaves, which serves 

 hardly more than for a lining to the depression in the ground where the eggs are laid. 

 These are four in number, of the usual pyriform shape, and greenish or ochraceous 

 drab, with markings of dark brown. 



The length of the black-bellied plover is about eleven and a half inches, its 

 extent of wing twenty-five, the length of wing seven and a half inches, the bill some- 

 what over an inch. The head above the eyes, the hind neck and its sides are white, 

 the first with some blackish feathers ; the back is black with markings of white ; the 

 wings are brownish varied with white ; the upper tail-coverts are white with irregular 

 blackish bars ; the tail is white, barred with blackish ; the entire lower surface, with 

 the exception of the white lower abdomen and tail-coverts, is deep black. The 

 young are similar, but are yellowish spotted above, and lack the black of the lower 

 parts, this replaced by white, the breast being streaked with brownish. 



TI)e American (iolden Plover. 



This beautiful plover, so well named the golden, replaces in America its namesake 

 of the Old World. Passing the summer season near the shores of the frozen northern 

 sea, it migrates in fall to the southward throughout all of North and South America, 

 and reaches at last even the bleak shores of Patagonia. On the wonderful pampas of 

 Argentina it occurs at times in untold numbers, though in these latter days much 

 less abundantly. While common, even abundant, over almost all of its range, it does 

 not seem to be very numerous along the Pacific coast. Particularly in the interior 

 it comes in greatest throngs during the autumn, but neither then nor in the spring 

 does it tarry long. In its fall movements along the eastern coast of the United 

 States it often performs long flights without rest, passing to seaward of the shore, 

 from Nova Scotia to the Bermudas and the West Indies, on its way to South 

 America, and appearing in large numbers on our coasts only under stress of severe 

 and adverse weather conditions. 



Both in appearance and disposition it is more attractive than its black-bellied 

 cousin. Unlike that species it seems rather to shun the wet ground, having prefer- 

 ence for dry flats, sandy uplands, or any areas not covered with high vegetation. 

 Very swift on the wing, these birds, when in flocks about their feeding-grounds, exe- 

 cute movements as perfectly in concert as if they were winged soldiers. When in 

 migration flight, they travel not uncommonly in long lines and in flocks of other 

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