144 
THIi CONDOR 
1 V(.l. Ill 
a dainty wreath of slender bleached 
bones, chiefly from fishes. The spot 
chosen for the eggs was about two-hun 
dred yards from the surf, on the level 
beach sand, near the center of the broad 
opening of one of the gullies in the 
sand-dunes. There was no distinguish- 
ing mark or object near the eggs, and 
nothing in the slightest to protect the 
set from destruction. The Plover was 
sitting on the nest when it was found 
and betrayed its presence by gliding off 
on the close approach of Mr. Jack.son. 
She remained at a distance while we 
were in the neighborhood, but several 
hours later while in the vicinity I found 
a bird sitting on the empty nest. She 
ran off on our approach. 
About twenty-five yards from this set 
we found two eggs, several feet apart 
and on an open fiat stretch of sand a 
little nearer the breakers. I concluded 
that the wind had blown apart the eggs 
of an incomplete set. 
Two more Snowy Plovers were found 
in this neighborhood, but I was unal)le 
to locate their nests or young; but late 
that afternoon while crossing the sand 
dunes I stirred up another bird. We 
had run across a hillock of chips of 
broken flint, intermixed with shells and 
a few bones; evidently an Indian 
mound. While examining this inter- 
esting spot I noticed a Plover feigning a 
broken wing. She would run to within 
eight or ten yards of me and dropping 
on one side, would hold the wing of the 
other up above her back, and crying 
piteously, would drag herself away. I 
sat down to await results and after a 
few minutes she stopped, panting vio- 
lently, and apparently seriously 
wounded. Finding that I made no 
move she tried again and again, until 
she started within ten feet of me in her 
endeavor to attract attention and pur- 
suit. But as night was rapidly ap- 
proaching, and we were twenty miles 
from camp, I could not stop long enough 
to work out the object of her solicitude, 
but for the twenty minutes we were in 
the neighborhood her efforts to decoy 
us were unceasing. 
1 was especially interested in this in- 
cident. Without doubt the bird had 
either eggs or young in that immediate 
vicinity; yet that Indian mound was at 
least a quarter of a mile from the beach 
— several large hills .of drifting sand in- 
tervening. Is it the habit of these 
plovers to nest so far from the surf? 
Leaving this anxious bird, we pushed 
on to the beach, striking it some dis- 
tance below the buggy. Before we had 
fairly reached the sands, Jackson called 
me to liis side and pointed to the sand 
at his feet. There stretched out as if 
dead but with bright open eyes, lay a 
plover, even smaller than the first. It 
had sought no shelter but was trying 
to conceal its presence by stillness, even 
on tlie open sand, for there was no 
sheltering object near. We approached 
closer and closer until I could have 
touched the bird with my hand, Init no 
movement on its part evinced life; so we 
left it, a nd were soon on the lu meward 
road. 
m 
An Additional Specimen of Nyctale From 
Lake Tahoe. 
T HK young male mentioned 
in ‘Land Birds of the Paci- 
fic District” was captured in 
a dwelling on the evening of 
Sept. 21, 1899 at Tahoe City, where it 
may have been reared, as I had Ireen 
told of small owls that came about tlie 
dwelling at night. My second speci- 
men was taken in a dense alder thicket 
near McKinney’s August 23, 1901. It 
was a young female; I shot it about 10 
o’clock in the morning. Its stomach 
was full of fur and the bones of a small 
animal. 
Possibly both individuals were mi- 
grants from the north, but I have long 
supposed that this owl was a summer 
resident of the east slope of the Sierras, 
though I have never heard one and 
have gone many times to what i 
thought were favorable parts of the for- 
