74 WILSON'S PLOVER.
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
miniature 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.
WILSON'S Plover begins to lay its eggs about the time when the young
of the Piping Plover are running after their parents. Twenty or thirty
yards from the uppermost beat of the waves, on the first of June, or
some day not distant from it, the female may be seen scratching a small
cavity in the shelly sand, in which she deposits four eggs, placing them
carefully with the broad end outermost. The eggs, which measure an
inch and a quarter by seven and a half eighths, are of a dull cream colour,
sparingly sprinkled all over with dots of pale purple and spots of
dark brown. The eggs vary somewhat in size, and in their ground colour,
but less than those of many other species of the genus. The young
follow their parents as soon as they are hatched, and the latter employ
every artifice common to birds of this family, to entice their enemies to
follow them and thus save their offspring.
The flight of this species is rapid, elegant, and protracted. While
travelling from one sand-beach or island to another, they fly low over the
land or water, emitting a fine clear soft note. Now and then, when after
the breeding season they form into flocks of twenty or thirty, they perform
various evolutions in the air, cutting backwards and forwards, as if
inspecting the spot on which they wish to alight, and then suddenly
descend, sometimes on the sea-beach, and sometimes on the more elevated
sands at a little distance from it. They do not run so nimbly as the Piping
Plovers, nor are they nearly so shy. I have in fact frequently walked
WILSON'S PLOVER. 75
up so as to be within ten yards or so of them. They seldom mix with
other species, and they shew a decided preference to solitary uninhabited
spots.
Their food consists principally of small marine insects, minute shellfish,
and sandworms, with which they mix particles of sand. Towards
autumn they become almost silent, and being then very plump, afford delicious
eating. They feed fully as much by night as by day, and the
large eyes of this as of other species of the genus, seem to fit them for
nocturnal searchings.
The young birds assemble together, and spend the winter months
apart from the old ones, which are easily recognised by their lighter
tints. While in the Floridas, near St Augustine, in the months of December
and January, I found this species much more abundant than any
other; and there were few of the Keys that had a sandy beach, or a rocky
shore, on which one or more pairs were not observed.
WILSON'S PLOVER, CHARADRIUS WILSONIUS, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. ix. p. 77-
pi. 73. fig. 5—Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 21.
CHARADRIUS "WILSONIUS, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 296'.
Adult Female. Plate CCIX. Fig. 2.
Bill as long as the head, stout, straight, cylindrical, obtuse, and somewhat
turgid at the tip. Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight
until towards the end, when it is slightly arched and declinate, the sides
convex, the edges sharp and slightly inflected. Nasal groove extending
to about half the length of the bill; nostrils lateral, linear, direct, in the
lower part of the bare membrane. Lower mandible with the angle
rounded, the dorsal line convex and ascending, the back broad, the sides
convex, the edges inflected.
Head large, a little compressed, the forehead prominent; eyes large.
Neck short. Body rather full. Wings long. Legs rather long, slender;
tibia bare a little above the joint; tarsus of ordinary length, somewhat
compressed, covered with angular scales; toes small and slender, covered
above with numerous small scutella, first toe wanting, fourth longer than
second, third longest, the two outer connected at the base by a pretty
large web; claws small, slightly arched, much compressed, obtuse.
Plumage soft and rather blended. Wings long, narrow, primaries
nearly straight, narrow and tapering, the first longest, second a little