Xov., 1901. 
thp: condor 
■43 
Some Oliservations on Young Snowy Plover. 
BY JNO. XI. WILLARD, OAKLAND, CAL. 
E arly on tlie morning of July i, 
1901 , 1 left Pe.scadero canyon where 
I was cr.mping f< r the summer and 
witli Mr W. H. Jnchson of that place for 
a companion , drove some seventeen miles 
down the coast to try to find some breed- 
ing Snowy Plovers. Our road ran 
parallel to tlie surf, and not far from it, 
always within Iiearing or sig-ht, — to 
within less than two miles of our des- 
tination, where it led down onto tlie 
beach itself and in some places could 
only be traveled with safety at high 
tide. Passing the narrower portions, 
we were soon on a broad, white beach, 
with the low bluffs on the one side and 
with the breakers on the other; and the 
beautiful white sand, two hundred 
yards wide, stretching a mile or more 
ahead of us. Here was the place for 
Plovers! Our horse did not like the 
breakers, but we succeeded in persuad- 
ing him to proceed and in about fifteen 
minutes turned up into a ravine, half 
clogged with drift logs etc., that pro- 
m'sed a shelter. 
After making the horse comfortable 
we separated and .started down the 
beach. The low bluff, mentioned be- 
fore, here gave place to gullies and 
broken stretches of sand, the whole be- 
ing backed by great dunes of clear drift- 
ing sand, unbroken by vegetation for 
the mo.st part although there were belts 
and tongues of shrubs, most noticeable 
among which was Lupinus arboreiis. 
These were the homes of numerous 
Zonotrichia. The beach was wide but 
its inner edge, and in places well into 
the dune-gullies, was covered with a 
numerous litter of drift, — the accumula- 
tion of years of storms. Among this 
drift I found five whale-skulls, half 
buried in the sand. 
Before I was five minutes from our 
buggy I found that a pair of Plovers 
was circling me like a pair of shadows 
and uttering a low whistle from time to 
time. They ran most of the time, but 
now and then one would make a short 
flight. I was looking for a nest when 
I found what was to me more interest- 
ing than a set of eggs could be, a young 
not much bigger than my thumb, lying 
flat on the sand half under a stick of 
drift wood that was sticking up in the 
sand. 1 was not ten feet away from 
him yet he made no move .so 1 retreated 
a few steps and sat down on the end of 
a log to await developements. For fif- 
teen minutes I waited and hardly 
moved but as far as 1 could see he had 
not made any movement whatever. He 
was laid out perfectly flat, with his chin 
in front of him, and resting on the sand 
in a strained and unnatural position. 
By this time I concluded that he would 
wait for me to run and get my camera, 
so, after marking the spot, I started on 
a run for the wagon to get my instru- 
ment back before he accumulated 
enough courage to get up and run 
away. The deep sand made running 
hard, but I got back in five or six 
minutes to find him exactly as I had 
left him. His parents were a little 
nearer than before, but they retreated 
as [ approached. I set up the camera — 
put my head under the cloth, — and 
slowly approached to within forty 
inches, focused it etc., — and took his 
picture, — still no movement on his part. 
Then I wanted another picture and 
started to move a little closer, when 
up — my how he did run! 
As I shouldered my camera I saw 
Jackson a couple of hundred yards 
down Ihe beach waving his arms. He 
led me back a short distance to a spot 
marked by an upright stick, and said, 
“There they are!” But I had to study 
the ground carefully before I could see 
the set, so well did their protective 
coloration blend with the surroundings. 
Then I saw the set— three fresh eggs, 
lying with their points together in a 
slight hollow scooped out of the sand 
by the Plovers. Circling the eggs was 
