Co 
Ti AC DUBON BULLETIN 
better cover now and birds were less nervous. The car makes a good blind. 
A second pair appeared on the north side of the road. The first pair 
walked over to the edge of the sidewalk looking across at them and they 
stood for a while as if visiting, but neither pair crossed the road. 
The male of the first pair flew to a nearby tussock and whistled. She 
remained behind and he flew back to her twice, coaxingly, then settled on 
the tussock. She worked over to him, feeding. He inflated his throat, and 
vibrating his bill rapidly, uttered a very low, soft twitter, and they mated. 
This flying back and forth and twittering is said to be characteristic 
mating behavior. . : 
They continued feeding for some time, keeping about six feet apart. 
Then he flew to a tussock, she crouched in the grass, and they rested and 
preened. Later they moved out of sight, feeding. 
Another plover flew into the far side of the block. Driving there we 
found a pair on the sidewalk. The third plover flew to a pole and whistled, 
then flew down near the pair. The male on the sidewalk went to meet him 
Courtesy of Chicago Academy of Sciences 
Upland Plover at Nest 
belligerently, then suddenly changed his mind and herded the female rapidly 
away. The lone male flew back to the pole and whistled. When the other 
pair was some distance away, he flew down to the same spot in the grass. 
A female not visible before rose to meet him and he uttered a faint twitter 
to greet her. They walked away, feeding. 'We looked for a nest where the 
female had risen, but found none. This was the nearest thing to a real 
squabble we saw during the whole season and there was no further trouble 
of any kind. Just a little territorial argument? 
There were no more flying and whistling and again the birds disappeared 
at sundown. Apparently they congregated heré about sunset to bed down 
for the night. As well as we could count them, we had seen two pairs in 
one block, two or three pairs in an adjoining block, and later another pair 
in the block to the southeast, making about 10 to 12 plovers in this area. 
We cruised over a distance of a square mile or more in this region, repeated- 
ly, but found plovers nowhere else, though occasionally they flew in and 
out from afar. 
