THE PIPING PLOVER. 
225 
perfectly motionless, and if it perceives that you have not marked it, squats 
flat on the sand, which it so much resembles in colour, that you may as well 
search for another, as try to find it again. 
Their notes, which are so soft and mellow as nearly to resemble those of 
the sweetest songster of the forest, reach your ear long before you have 
espied the Piping Plover. Now and then, these sounds come from perhaps 
twenty different directions, and you are perplexed, as well as delighted. 
At the approach of autumn, this species becomes almost mute, the colour 
of the plumage fades ; and it is then very difficult for you to perceive one 
that may be only a few yards off, until it starts and runs or flies before 
you. At this season they are less shy than before. 
During winter they are generally in good condition, and their flesh is 
very delicate and savoury, although, bn account of their small size, they 
soldom draw the sportsman after them. Their food consists of marine 
insects, minute shell-fish, and small sand-worms. 
Ring Plover, Charadrius Hiaticula, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. v. p. 30. 
Charadrius melodus, Ord, Bonap. Syn., p. 296. 
Piping Ring Plover, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 18. 
Piping Plover, Charadrius melodus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 154 ; vol. v. p. 578. 
Male, 74, 16J. 
From Texas, along the whole coast, to the Magdeleine Islands, Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, breeding everywhere. Common. Great numbers spend the 
winter from South Carolina to the mouths of the Mississippi. 
Male in summer. 
Bill half the length of the head, straight, somewhat cylindrical. Upper 
mandible with the dorsal line straight to the middle, then bulging a little 
and curving to the tip, which projects beyond that of the lower mandible, 
the sides flat and sloping at the base, convex towards the end, the edges 
sharp and overlapping. Nasal groove extended to the middle of the bill, 
filled with a bare membrane; nostrils basal, linear, in the lower part of the 
membrane, open, and pervious. Lower mandible with the angle rather 
short, rounded, the sides at the base sloping outwards and flat, the dorsal 
line ascending and slightly convex, the edges sharp and inflected. 
Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed, the forehead rounded. Eyes 
large. Neck short. Body rather slender, ovate. Wings long. Feet of 
moderate length, slender ; tibia bare a little above the joint ; tarsus rather 
compressed, covered all round with reticulated angular scales; toes slender; 
the hind toe wanting; third or middle toe longest, outer toe considerably 
longer than inner, all scutellate above and marginate, the outer connected 
