WILSON’S PLOVER. 
215 
of the fading stars, the sound of living thing is not heard; nature, universal 
nature, is at rest. And here am I, inhaling the grateful sea-air, with eyes 
intent on the dim distance. See the bright blaze that issues from the verge 
of the waters ! and now the sun himself appears, and all is life, or seems to 
be ; for, as the influence of the Divinity is to the universe, so is that of the 
sun to the things of this world. Far away beyond that treacherous reef, 
floats a gallant bark, that seems slumbering on the bosom of the waters like 
a silvery sea-bird. Gentle breezes now creep over the ocean, and ruffle its 
surface into tiny wavelets. The ship glides along, the fishes leap with joy, 
and on my ear comes the well known note of the bird which bears the name 
of one whom every ornithologist must honour. Long have I known the 
bird myself, and yet desirous of knowing it better, I have returned to this 
beach many successive seasons for the purpose' of observing its ways, ex- 
amining its nest, marking the care with which it rears its young, and the 
attachment which it manifests to its mate. Well, let the scene vanish! 
and let me present you with the results of my observations. 
Wilson’s Plover! Hove the name because of the respect I bear towards 
him to whose memory the bird has been dedicated. How pleasing, I have 
thought, it would have been to me, to have met with him on such an excur- 
sion, and, after having procured a few of his own birds, to have listened to 
him as he would speak of a thousand interesting facts connected with his 
favourite science and my ever-pleasing pursuits. How delightful to have 
talked, among other things, of the probable use of the double claics which I 
have found attached to the toes of the species which goes by his name, and 
which are also seen in other groups of shore and sea birds. Perhaps he 
might have informed me why the claws of some birds are pectinated on 
one toe and not on the rest, and why that toe itself is so cut. But alas ! 
Wilson was with me only a few times, and then nothing worthy of his 
attention was procured. 
This interesting species, which always looks to me as if in form a minia- 
ture copy of the Black-bellied Plover, is a constant resident in the southern 
districts of the Union. There it breeds, and there too it spends the winter. 
Many individuals, no doubt, move farther south, but great numbers are at all 
times to be met with from Carolina to the mouths of the Mississippi, and in 
all these places I have found it the whole year round. Some go as far to the 
eastward as Long Island in the State of New York, where, however, they 
are considered as rarities ; but beyond this, none, I believe, are seen along 
our eastern shores. This circumstance has seemed the more surprising to 
me, that its relative the Piping Plover proceeds as far as the Magdeleine 
Islands ; and that the latter bird should also breed in the Carolinas a month 
earlier than Wilson’s Plover ever does, seems to me not less astonishing. 
