THE UPLAND PLOVER 
By EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 4 
This lovely, dove-like bird, although really a Sandpiper, has become 
so widely and generally known as a Plover that the wise men of the 
American Ornithologists’ Union have ceased to use the early book- 
j name, Bartram’s, or the Bartramian, Sandpiper, and have adopted the 
popular name Upland Plover. It is known also in various parts of 
the country as the Grass, Field, Highland, Pasture, Plain, Cornfield, and 
NEST AND EGGS OF UPLAND PLOVER 
Photographed by Herbert K. Job 
Gray Plover. In the West it is named Prairie Pigeon, Prairie Snipe, 
Meadow Plover and Whistling Plover. It has not the short neck and 
legs, and the short pigeon-like bill of a true plover, and it has four 
toes, where the typical plover has three ; still, it resembles a plover 
somewhat in form and habits, and frequents localities where formerly 
the Golden Plover was abundant. 
Years ago, when spring greenery began to dress the hillsides, we 
listened for the call of the Upland Plover. In sweet 
May nights, when the gentle south wind blew, we Flights 
harked for the wing-beats and call-notes indicating 
the northward night-flight, some sounding faint and high in the dark 
dome, others just above the tree-tops.. All the dim strata of the air 
were laden with swift, winged shapes, passing unseen as the great 
flood of bird-life surged ever northward through the dewy gloom. 
Above all other sounds came again and again the whistle of the Tatlers; 
and the wild Plover’s call, now near, now far, fell through the spaces 
of the starlit night, soft, rich, and sweet to the listening ear. 
The Upland Plover was the only large wader commonly seen on 
13 
