March, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
121 
sluggish and lies motionless. It is then 
difficult to detect and if trodden on will 
naturally retaliate by striking. 
The class of snake which kills its 
prey by constriction, such as the python 
and boa, is practically innocuous to 
man. Their activity has been largely 
exaggerated. They do not dart after 
their prey at lightning speed and en- 
velop it suddenly in their coils. They 
lie motionless, or glide slowly, and, when 
a suitable animal comes within reach, 
grasp it with their powerful jaws and 
then slowly but surely encompass it 
with their coils and press its life out. 
KILDEER PLOVER ON LONG 
ISLAND 
H ERE on Long Island, late Febru- 
ary and the first of March, at 
times, brings the most wintry 
weather of the year. Even so the sun 
mounts higher daily, and the naturalist 
is keenly expectant of meeting birds re- 
turning from the south. One of the 
very first to greet him may be the kil - 
deer plover, its voice ringing out with 
startling distinctiveness amid some 
snowbound scene. Such pioneering in- 
dividuals must, perforce, forage along 
open water, as related shorebirds with 
less taste for the upland do at all times. 
They are most frequently found along 
the edges of creeks or ponds. 
If the Kildeer does not occur regular- 
ly it is at least frequently found in late 
December in central and southern New 
Jersey from the Raritan River south- 
ward. This seems to mark the northern 
The Kildeer Plover. 
limit of its winter habitat hereabouts. 
According to the Abstract of the Pro- 
ceedings of the Linnaean Society, a flock 
of six birds at Clason Point in the 
Bronx, January 3, 1919, was observed 
by Mr. E. G. Nichols. But we know 
of no such winter record for Long 
Island. It will be remembered that the 
winter of 1918-19 was unusually mild. 
The writer lived for several years 
back of the Palisades at Englewood, N. 
J., and found this species a tolerably 
common migrant spring and fall, arriv- 
ing in March. The very earliest date 
of its being observed in this locality that 
I i.h.cK 
Plover tracks — Kildeer (left) ; Black- 
breast (right). 
he was able to obtain was February 7 
(1915, by Mr. R. S. Lemmon). The 
earliest date of occurrence he knows of 
for Long Island is February 23, 1920. 
On this day he found one about a grassy 
creek flowing into the South Bay at 
Amityville. The severity of the winter 
just passed would have made it seem 
most probable that this was a new ar- 
rival from the south, even without ob- 
servations in previous years indicating 
that the species does not winter, and at 
times migrates northward very early. 
On March 4, 1917, a flock of a dozen 
or so kildeer was observed at the Hemp- 
stead reservoirs coincident with the 
earliest flock of spring robins. This is 
one of the few stations on Long Island 
where they apparently breed, as they 
are to -be found there regularly 
through the spring. 
Throughout the southern and western 
portions of the United States, the kil- 
deer is much more numerous than near 
the northeastern Atlantic sea-board. In 
this northeastern section also, its num- 
bers and its movements are generally 
considered very uncertain. A careful 
study of their details will probably show, 
however, that they possess a reasonable 
amount of regularity. It will be re- 
membered that the main line of south- 
ward migration for transient shore-birds 
in general on Long Island is along the 
bays and marshes of the south or ocean 
shore. It begins in July, is at its height 
in early August, lessens (except for a 
few species) in late August and Sep- 
tember. Indications are that the kildeer 
is on the wing at the same time. Its 
unmistakable voice has been occasional- 
ly heard along this migration route in 
July and early August (July 4, 1919, the 
earliest date) though many individuals 
are doubtless still on their breeding 
grounds at this season. On the other 
side of the Hudson at Englewood, N. J., 
nine birds were found with other Limi- 
colae, August 7, 1912, feeding in the 
muddy bottom of a little pond from 
which the water had been drawn 
Along the south shore of Long Island 
stray migrant kildeer are most fre- 
quent, however, the latter part of Au- 
gust and in September. One seldom or 
never sees them alighted on the marshes 
which tempt other shore-birds, though 
I have had one come to decoys set out 
in such a place, and fly on without stop- 
ping. It is at this time that they have 
also been seen feeding on the dry inland 
Hempstead Plains region. 
There is a little pond at Syosset, the 
narrow, muddy shores of which one or a 
few birds frequent for a time still later 
in the fall. On October 3, 1920, there 
were four birds here. They had been 
feeding in the shallow edge of the water 
to judge from the footmarks, a diagra- 
matic sketch of one of which accompa- 
nies this article. Besides the regular 
incisive flight call this little company of 
birds had other more sociable notes, “ki- 
hi-hi-hi-hi, jee, jee, jee,” etc. 
From September 25 to October 19, 
1899, several kildeer were often to be 
found feeding in a small cow-pasture 
overlooking a marsh at Far Rockaway, 
tributary to the western end of Jamaica 
Bay and in close proximity to the ocean, 
or flying about near this locality. Late 
in the fall the species is perhaps most 
commonly met with at muddy places 
about the heads of North Shore harbors. 
The latest date we know of for Long 
Island is December 14. 
J. T. Nichols. 
THE ATLANTIC FISH-HAWK 
T HERE is no migratory bird of more 
punctual habits than our own ma- 
jestic Osprey, the Fish-hawk, for 
just as soon as the Venal Equinox rolls 
around he will be seen in this latitude. 
In New Jersey they build their huge 
nests in isolated trees sometimes miles 
from the shore, though some have built 
on chimney tops and telegraph poles, the 
same nests being occupied year after 
Osprey leaving nest. 
year. So persistent are they to breed in 
the same locality that a nest I saw de- 
molished several times was finally built 
up and a late hatch reared before the 
21st of September. 
Their enormous pinion wing spread 
of 4% ft. makes them one of our most 
powerful birds on the wing and enables 
them to carry a fish as heavy as them- 
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