MODE OF FLIGHT. 
93 
close to the muddy and sandy beaches, hunting for worms, 
insects, and small marine creatures, as others of the 
Plover family do. Some individuals have been known to 
remain all the winter with us ; but no instance is recorded 
of its having bred here, hence British naturalists can say 
but little of its habits from personal observation. It is 
known as a resident, or occasional visitant, in most coun- 
tries, both of the old and new world; and no one has 
described its habits so well as Audubon, v/ho traces it 
from the Gulf of Mexico to Labrador, and states that in 
winter most of the migratory individuals pass northward 
beyond the limits of the United States, but that some 
spend the summer months in the mountainous parts of 
Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, where they 
breed. ' The nest,' he says, ' is merely a slight hollow, 
with a few blades of grass. The eggs are four in number ; 
their ground colour yellowisli white, tinged with olivaceous, 
and generally covered with blotches and clots of light 
brown and purj)le. On being started they use all the 
artifices employed on such occasions to induce the intruder 
to set out in pursuit. The young leave the nest almost 
immediately after they are hatched, and when two or three 
weeks old run with great activity, and squat in perfect 
silence when apprehensive of danger. When they are 
able to fiy, several families unite, and betake themselves to 
the seashore, where other flocks gradually arrive, until at 
length, on the approach (£ cold weather, almost all of them 
begin to move southward. In their habits these birds are 
more maritime than the Golden Plovers, which, when 
migrating, generally advance over the land. The flight of 
this bird is swift, strong, and well sustained. When 
roaming over large sand-bars, they move in compact 
bodies, Avhirling round, and suddenly veering so as alter- 
nately to exhibit their upper and under parts. At this 
time old and young are intermixed, and many of the 
former have lost the black, so conspicuous on the neck and 
breast in summer. During winter, or as long as they 
frequent the seashore, they feed on marine insects, worms, 
and small shell-fish, and when they are in the interior, on 
gi-asshoppers and other insects, as well as berries of various 
