WILSON'S PLOVER. 215 



of the fading stars, the sound of living thing is not heard; nature, universal 

 nature, is at rest. And here am I, inhaling the grateful sea-air, with eyes 

 intent on the dim distance. See the bright blaze that issues from the verge 

 of the waters! and now the sun himself appears, and all is life, or seems to 

 be; for, as the influence of the Divinity is to the universe, so is that of the 

 sun to the things of this world. Far away beyond that treacherous reef, 

 floats a gallant bark, that seems slumbering on the bosom of the waters like 

 a silvery sea-bird. Gentle breezes now creep over the ocean, and ruffle its 

 surface into tiny wavelets. The ship glides along, the fishes leap with joy, 

 and on my ear comes the well known note of the bird which bears the name 

 of one whom every ornithologist must honour. Long have 1 known the 

 bird myself, and yet desirous of knowing it better, I have returned to this 

 beach many successive seasons for the purpose of observing its ways, ex- 

 amining its nest, marking the care with which it rears its young, and the at- 

 tachment which it manifests to its mate. Well, let the scene vanish! and 

 let me present you with the results of my observations. 



Wilson's Plover! I love the name because of the respect I bear towards 

 him to whose memory the bird has been dedicated. How pleasing, I have 

 thought, it would have been to me, to have met with him on such an excur- 

 sion, and, after having procured a few of his own birds, to have listened to 

 him as he would speak of a thousand interesting facts connected with his 

 favourite science and my ever-pleasing pursuits. How delightful to have 

 talked, among other things, of the probable use of the double claws which I 

 have found attached to the toes of the species which goes by his name, and 

 which are also seen in other groups of shore and sea birds. Perhaps he 

 might have informed me why the claws of some birds are pectinated on one 

 toe and not on the rest, and why that toe itself is so cut. But alas! Wilson 

 was with me only a few times, and then nothing worthy of his attention 

 was procured. 



This interesting species, which always looks to me as if in form a minia- 

 ture copy of the Black-bellied Plover, is a constant resident in the southern 

 districts of the Union. There it breeds, and there too it spends the winter. 

 Many individuals, no doubt, move farther south, but great numbers are at all 

 times to be met with from Carolina to the mouths of the Mississippi, and in 

 all these places I have found it the whole year round. Some go as far to the 

 eastward as Long Island in the State of New York, where, however, they 

 are considered as rarities; but beyond this, none, I believe, are seen along 

 our eastern shores. This circumstance has seemed the more surprising to 

 me, that its relative the Piping Plover proceeds as far as the Magdeleine 

 Islands; and that the latter bird should also breed in the Carolinas a month 

 earlier than Wilson's Plover ever does, seems to me not less astonishing. 



