166 
PRJ5C0CIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOLJE. 
ing waves down, and scurrying back as they come rolling in again. On the 7th of 
July he found two broods of young, which had left the nests but a few hours before. 
They were clothed in down, and were yet so weak as scarcely to be able to stand. 
Subsequently he noticed quite a number of nests containing eggs. The spot selected 
for a breeding-ground was a strip of bare white sand, a hundred yards from the 
ocean. In every instance but one the eggs were deposited in a slight hollow scratched 
in the sand, without lining of any sort. In the exceptional case the owners had 
selected from along the shore little bits of pearly nacre, remnants of broken sea- 
shells, and upon a smooth lining of this material had placed their treasures. The 
effect of the richly colored eggs as they lay on their cushion of shining mother-of- 
pearl is said to have been very pleasing. Mr. Henshaw adds, that so slight was the 
contrast between the eggs and the drifted sand about them, that they would be diffi- 
cult enough to find, were it not for the tracks about the nests. As the birds came to 
relieve their mates in sitting or to bring them food, they alighted near the nest, and 
thus for a little distance around each one was a series of tracks converging to a com- 
mon centre, which betrayed their secret. Great was the alarm of the colony as soon 
as his presence was known. They gathered into little knots, following him at a dis- 
tance with low sorrowful cries. When her nest was seen to be really discovered, 
the female would fly close by him and make use of all the arts which birds of this 
kind know so well how to employ on like occasions. With wings drooping and trail- 
ing on the sand, she would move in front till his attention was secured, and would 
then fall helplessly down, and, burying her breast in the sand, present the very pic- 
ture of despair and woe, while the male bird and the other pairs expressed their sym- 
pathy by loud cries. The full nest complement is said to have been three eggs ; 
and in no instance were more found. He describes them as of a light clay color, 
marked with numerous blotches and scratchy splashes of black, in size and appear- 
ance approaching most closely to those of JE. meloda, but easily to be distinguished 
by the different style of the spotting.' He gives their greatest length as 1.30 ; their 
least, 1.22 ; and their diameter as varying from .89 to .95. 
Hr. Cooper speaks of these birds as being quite common along the sandy beaches 
of the southern part of California, but becoming rather rare near San Francisco, 
although found north as far as Cape Mendocino. They did not seem to migrate at 
any particular season, but were found at all times, in small parties, running over the 
drifted sand or along the edge of the water, catching insects and Crustacea. In the 
spring they are less gregarious, and the females retire to lay their eggs, which are 
found just above the edge of the highest water-marks, deposited in slight depressions 
in the sand, sometimes lined with fragments of shells. The eggs are laid from April 
15tli to July 30tli, the latter being probably a second brood. They are large for the 
size of the bird, measuring 1.22 inches by .92, and have a brownish-white ground, 
thickly blotched and speckled with blackish-brown marks resembling Turkish let- 
ters. In one instance, after an extremely high tide at night, Dr. Cooper found in 
the early morning four eggs partly hatched in a depression just made in the wet 
sand, at the very top of the wave-flow. They must have been moved there by the 
old birds from another nest that morning. Their dampness could hardly have been 
favorable for their hatching, though soon to be dried by the sun, the heat of which 
saves these birds much of the trouble of sitting. Dr. Cooper has never heard this 
bird utter any sound. 
Mr. Ridgway characterizes this species as a graceful little Plover, and states that 
though previously known only from the Pacific Region, he found it very abundant 
in the neighborhood of the southeastern shore of Great Salt Lake. On the bare 
