216 WILSON'S PLOVER. 



Wilson's Plover begins to lay its eggs about the time when the young of 

 the Piping Plover are running after their parents. Twenty or thirty yards 

 from the uppermost beat of the waves, on the first of June, or some day not 

 distant from it, the female may be seen scratching a small cavity in the shelly 

 sand, in which she deposits four eggs, placing them carefully with the broad 

 end outermost. The eggs, which measure an inch and a quarter by seven 

 and a half eighths, are of a dull cream colour, sparingly sprinkled all over 

 with dots of pale purple and spots of dark brown. The eggs vary somewhat 

 in size, and in their ground colour, but less than those of many other species 

 of the genus. The young follow their parents as soon as they are hatched, 

 and the latter employ every artifice common to birds of this family, to entice 

 their enemies to follow them and thus save their offspring. 



The flight of this species is rapid, elegant, and protracted. While travel- 

 ling from one sand-beach or island to another, they fly low over the land or 

 water, emitting a fine clear soft note. Now and then, when after the breed- 

 ing season they form into flocks of twenty or thirty, they perform various 

 evolutions in the air, cutting backwards and forwards, as if inspecting the 

 spot on which they wish to alight, and then suddenly descend, sometimes on 

 the sea-beach, and sometimes on the more elevated sands at a little distance 

 from it. They do not run so nimbly as the Piping Plovers, nor are they 

 nearly so shy. I have in fact frequently walked up so as to be within ten 

 yards or so of them. They seldom mix with other species, and they shew 

 a decided preference to solitary uninhabited spots. 



Their food consists principally of small marine insects, minute shell-fish, 

 and sand-worms, with which they mix particles of sand. Towards autumn 

 they become almost silent, and being then very plump, afford delicious eat- 

 ing. They feed fully as much by night as by day, and the large eyes of this 

 as of other species of the genus, seem to fit them for nocturnal searchings. 



The young birds assemble together, and spend the winter months apart 

 from the old ones, which are easily recognised by their lighter tints. While 

 in the Floridas, near St. Augustine, in the months of December and January, 

 I found this species much more abundant than any other; and there were 

 few of the Keys that had a sandy beach, or a rocky shore, on which one or 

 more pairs were not observed. 



Wilson's Plover, Charadrius Wilsonius, Ord, Amer. Orn. vol. ix. p. 77. 



Charadrids Wilsonius, Bonap. Syn., p. 296. 



Wilson's Plover, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 21. 



Wilson's Plover, Charadrius Wilsonius, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 73; vol. v. p. 577. 



Male, 7-&, 14i. 



Common, and breeds from Texas along the coast to Long Island. Resi- 

 dent in the Southern States. 



