PLOVERS : FAMILY CHARADRIIDÆ
Five species of Plover occur in New York and New England. The Killdeer is rare and occurs only as an accidental migrant or as a local summer resident. The Golden Plover is a regular autumn migrant, but is far less common than the Black-bellied Plover, and is becoming steadily rarer. The Black-bellied Plover, the Beetle-head of the gunners, is not uncommon on mud-flats and sand-bars. The Piping Plover breeds not uncommonly on the sandy beaches of Long Island and Martha's Vineyard, and sparingly on Cape Cod and on the Maine coast; it occurs also as a not uncommon migrant at other beaches in New England. The Semipalmated Plover, the Ring-neck of the sportsmen, is by far the commonest member of the family. It associates regularly with the smaller sandpipers, either on the beaches or in the sloughs in the marshes. Plover may be told from sandpipers by their shorter bills. All but the Black-bellied Plover have a habit of bobbing the head as they stand.
PIPING PLOVER. Ægialitis meloda
7.00 in. Bill .50 in.
Ad. ♂.— Forehead, throat, and ring around neck white; forward part of crown black; a partial ring, broken in the middle of the breast, black; rest of upper parts light brownish-gray; tip of tail black; breast and belly white; base of bill orange, tip black; feet yellow. Ad. ♀.— Similar, but the black bars tending toward brownish, and less distinct.
Eggs, laid in a hollow on little pebbles on the open sand, creamy white, speckled or spotted with dark brown.
The Piping Plover is one of the few waders that breed on the coasts of New York and New England; it may therefore be looked for in June and early July, when there is only the Spotted Sandpiper from which it must be distinguished. It also occurs as a regular but not common migrant in April and May, and again in August and September. It breeds on the sand beaches of Long Island, Martha's Vineyard, and the adjoining islands, and sparingly on Cape Cod, at Ipswich, Mass., and on the Maine coast.
Piping Plover
Its sweet but mournful call consists of two notes, pi-pee', the first very short and about half an interval above the second. The bird frequents the upper part of the beach, where its pale colors harmonize so perfectly with the dry sand that it is often invisible till it starts to fly. It bobs, like its relative the Semipalmated Plover, but may be distinguished by its lighter color, and by the difference in the black collar, which in the Piping Plover does not cross the breast.
SEMIPALMATED PLOVER; RING-NECK. Ægialitis semipalmata
6.75 in. Bill 0.50 in.
Ad.— Forehead white; forward part of crown, stripe under each eye and over bill black; throat and narrow ring around neck white; band across breast and neck black; rest of upper parts grayish-brown; rest of under parts white; legs yellow; base of bill orange; tip black.
The Semipalmated Plover, or Ring-neck, is a common migrant along the sea-coast in May, and again from the middle of July to October.
Ring-necks frequent the beaches and mud-flats exposed at low tide. They are not, as a rule shy, and if startled, fly only a short distance, uttering as they rise a sweet call, chee-wee, as characteristic of the mud-flats and beaches as the kew, kew, kew, kew of the Yellow-legs is of the grassy marshes. They are often associated with the smaller sandpipers known as “Peep” [Least Sandpiper], or with their larger relative the Black-bellied Plover; their bobbing readily distinguishes them from the Peep. They are much commoner than the Piping Plover, and are a darker shade of brown on the back, the color of wet rather than of dry sand. The black ring encircles the breast, while in the Piping Plover the black bands from each side of the breast do not meet.
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Semipalmated Plover
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