THE PIPING PLOVER. 225 



perfectly motionless, and if it perceives that you have not marked it, squats 

 flat on the sand, which it so much resembles in colour, that you may as well 

 search for another, as try to find it again. 



Their notes, which are so soft and mellow as nearly to resemble those of 

 the sweetest songster of the forest, reach your ear long before you have 

 espied the Piping Plover. Now and then, these sounds come from perhaps 

 twenty different directions, and you are perplexed, as well as delighted. At 

 the approach of autumn, this species becomes almost mute, the colour of the 

 plumage fades; and it is then very difficult for you to perceive one that may 

 be only a few yards off, until it starts and runs or flies before you. At this 

 season they are less shy than before. 



During winter they are generally in good condition, and their flesh is 

 very delicate and savoury, although, on account of their small size, they 

 seldom draw the sportsman after them. Their food consists of marine 

 insects, minute shell-fish, and small sand-worms. 



Ring Plover, Charadrius Hiaticula, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. v. p. 30. 



Charadrids melodus, Ord, Bonap. Syn., p. 296. 



Piping Ring Plover, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 18. 



Piping Plover, Charadrius melodus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 154; vol. v. p. 578. 



Male, 7£, 15£. 



From Texas, along the whole coast, to the Magdeleine Islands, Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, breeding everywhere. Common. Great numbers spend the 

 w-inter from South Carolina to the mouths of the Mississippi. 



Male in summer. 



Bill half the length of the head, straight, somewhat cylindrical. Upper 

 mandible with the dorsal line straight to the middle, then bulging a little and 

 curving to the tip, which projects beyond that of the lower mandible, the 

 sides flat and sloping at the base, convex towards the end, the edges sharp 

 and overlapping. Nasal groove extended to the middle of the bill, filled 

 with a bare membrane; nostrils basal, linear, in the lower part of the mem- 

 brane, open, and pervious. Lower mandible with the angle rather short, 

 rounded, the sides at the base sloping outwards and flat, the dorsal line 

 ascending and slightly convex, the edges sharp and inflected. 



Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed, the forehead rounded. Eyes 

 large. Neck short. Body rather slender, ovate. Wings long. Feet of 

 moderate length, slender; tibia bare a little above the joint; tarsus rather 

 compressed, covered all round with reticulated angular scales; toes slender; 

 the hind toe wanting; third or middle toe longest, outer toe considerably 

 longer than inner, all scutellate above and marginate, the outer connected 



