Nov., ?9oI. 1 THE C()NI)()R I43 Some OBservations on Youno Snowy Plover. BY JNO. M. WII,LARD, OAKLA. ND, CAL. E ARLV Oll the morning of July I, x9ot, I left Pescadero canyon where I was cv, mping fir the summer and with Mr. W. H. Jackson of that place for a companion, drove some seventeen miles down the coast to try to find s,')me breed- ing Snowy Plovers. Our road ran parallel tq the surf, aud not far from it, always within hearing or si,,.,ht,---to within less than two miles of our des- tination, where it led dowu onto the beach itself and in some places could only be traveled with safety at high tide. Passing the narrower portions, we were soon on a broad, white beach, with the low bluffs on the one side and with the breakers on the other; and the 'beautiful white sand, two hundred yards wide, stretchinga mile or more ahead of us. Here was the place for Plovers! Our horse did not ? like the breakers, but we succeeded in persuad- ing him to proceed and in about fifteen minutes turned up into a ravine, ball clogged with drift logs etc., that pro- lapsed a shelter. After making the horse comfortable we separated and started down the beach. The low bluff, mentioned be- fore, here gave place to gullies and broken stretches of sand, the whole be- ing backed by g, reat dunesof clear drift- ing sand, unbroken by vegetation for the most part although there were belts and ton14ues of shrubs, most noticeable among which was L,pinns arboreus. These xvere the homes of nnmerous Zonotrichia. The beach was wide but its inner edge, and in places well into the dune-gullies, was covered with a numerous litter of drift,---the accumula- tiou of years of storms. Among this drift I found five whale-skulls, half buried in the sand. Before [ was five minutes from our buggy I found that a pair of Plovers was circling roelike a pair of shadows and uttering a low whistle from time to time. They ran most of the time, but UOW and then one would make a short flight. I was looking for a nest wheu I found what was to ine more interest- ing thau a set of eggs could be, a young- not much bigger than my thumb, lying fiat on the sand half under a stick of drift wood that was stieking up in the sand. I xvas not ten feet away from him yet he made nomove so I retreated a few steps and sat down on the end of a log to await developemeats. For fif- teen minutes I waited and h?rdty inoved but as far as I could see he had not made any movement whatever. He was laid out perfectly flat, with his ellin in front of him, and resting on the sand in a s{rained and unnatural position. By this time I concluded that he would wait forme to run and get my camera, so, after marking the spot, I started on a run for the wagon to get my instru- ment hack before lie accumulated enough courage to get up and run away. The deep saud made running hard, but I got back in five or six minutes to find him exactly as I had left him. His parents were a little nearer than before, but they retreated as [ approached. [ set up the camera-- put my head undkr the cloth,--and slowly approached to within forty inches, focused it etc.,--and took his picture,--still no movement on his part. Theu [ wanted another picture and started to move a little closer, when up--my how he (lid run! As I shouldered my camera I saw Jackson a couple of huudred yards down the beach waving his arms. He led me back a short distance to a spot marked'by an upright stick, and said, "There they are!" But I had to study the ground carefully before I could see the set, so well did their protective coloratiou blend with the surroundings. Then [ saw the set--three fresh eggs, lying with their points together in a slight hollow scooped out of the sand by the Plovers...Circling the eggs was
