224 THE PIPING PLOVER. 



and at times associate with other species, particularly the Turnstone, in 

 whose company I have found them abundantly on the coast of Florida, in the 

 winter months. They never proceed to any distance inland, even along the 

 sandy margins of our largest rivers; nor are they seen along very rocky 

 shores or places covered with deep mud. 



The favourite breeding stations of this species are low islands, mostly 

 covered with drifting sand, having a scanty vegetation, and not liable to in- 

 undation. In such a place many pairs may be found, with nests thirty or 

 forty yards apart. The nest is sometimes placed at the foot of a tuft of 

 withered grass, at other times in an exposed situation. A cavity is merely 

 scooped out in the soil, and there are deposited in it four eggs, which are in 

 a great measure hatched by the heat which the_ sand acquires under the in- 

 fluence of a summer sun; but in rough weather, and always by night, the 

 female is careful to sit upon them. Her mate is extremely attentive to her 

 during the period of incubation, and should you happen to stroll near the 

 nest, you are sure to meet him at his station. The eggs, which are four, and 

 have their points placed together, measure one inch and one-eighth by seven 

 and a half eighths, are p} 7 riform, broad, and flatly rounded at the larger end, 

 and tapering directly to the smaller, which is also rounded. They are of a 

 pale bluish-buff colour, sprinkled and lined nearly all over with dark red, 

 brown, and black. Only one brood is raised in the season. The ) r oung, 

 which go abroad immediately after they are hatched, run with remarkable 

 speed, and, at the least note of the parent bird indicative of danger, squat so 

 closely on the sand that you ma}^ walk over them without seeing them. 

 Their downy covering is grey, mottled with brown; their bill almost black. 

 If taken up in the hand, they emit-a soft plaintive note resembling that of the 

 old bird. The strange devices which their parents at this time adopt to 

 ensure their safety, cannot fail to render the student of nature very unwilling 

 to carr}^ them off without urgent necessity. You may see the mother, with 

 expanded tail and wings trailing on the ground, limping and fluttering before 

 you, as if about to expire. It is true you know it to be an artifice, but it is 

 an artifice taught by maternal love; and, when the bird has fairly got rid of 

 her unwelcome visiter, and you see her start up on her legs, stretch forth 

 her wings, and fly away piping her soft note, you cannot but participate in 

 the joy that she feels. 



The flight of this Plover is extremely rapid, as well as protracted. It 

 passes through the air by glidings and extended flappings, either close over 

 the sand, or high above the shores. On the ground, few birds are swifter 

 of foot. It runs in a straight line before you, sometimes for twenty or thirty 

 yards, with so much celerity, that unless you have a keen eye, it is almost 

 sure to become lost to your view. Then, in an instant it stops, becomes 



