The Bird Book: Illustrating in natural colors more than seven hundred North American birds; also several hundred photographs of their nests and eggs.Reed, Chester A. (Chester Albert)
Science
The Bird Book: Illustrating in natural colors more than seven hundred North American birds; also several hundred photographs of their nests and eggs.
Reed, Chester A. (Chester Albert)
Birds -- North America
A handsome bird, 12 inches in length, generally known as the "Upland
Plover," from its habit of frequenting dry side hills, where it feeds
upon grasshoppers and worms. It is a favorite bird with many sportsmen.
It builds a nest of grasses, on the ground in a tuft of grass in the
middle of fields. The three or four eggs have a buff ground and are
blotched with yellowish brown. Size 1.75 × 1.25. Data.--Stump Lake, N.
D., June 10, 1897. Nest of grass, lined with wool, under a tuft of grass
left by the mower. Collector, Alf. Eastgate.
[Illustration 158: Wandering Tattler. Ruff. Upland Plover.]
[Illustration: Buff.]
[Illustration: left hand margin.]
Page 157
[Illustration 159: Walter Raine.
NEST AND EGGS OF UPLAND PLOVER.]
Page 158
262. BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. _Tryngites subruficollis._
Range.--Interior of North America, breeding from the Hudson Bay region
to the Arctic coast.
A buffy colored species, with a peculiarly marbled back. Size 8.5 inches
long. It is an upland species like the last. The nests are scantily
lined depressions in the ground. The eggs have a grayish white ground
and are boldly blotched with rich brown and chestnut with fainter
markings of lilac. Size 1.45 × 1.05. Data.--Cape Smythe, Alaska, June,
1900. 4 eggs in a hollow in dry spot on a marsh. Collector, H. H.
Bodfish.
263. SPOTTED SANDPIPER. _Actitis macularia._
Range.--Whole of North America from Hudson Bay southward, breeding
throughout its range.
A small wader about 7.5 inches in length, with brownish gray upper
parts, and white underparts thickly spotted with blackish, especially on
the breast and flanks. This is the most abundant of all the shore birds,
and its "peet-weet" is a familiar sound to every country boy. It has a
peculiar habit of continually moving its tail up and down, when at rest
on a stone or when running along the shore; from these characteristic
actions it has received the very common names of "Teeter-tail" and
"Tip-up." They build their nests on the ground near ponds, brooks or
marshes, generally concealing it in a tuft of grass or weeds on the
shore or in the high grass at the edge of the meadows. The eggs number
from three to five and are of a grayish buff color, spotted and blotched
with blackish brown. The young, like those of all the shore birds, are
hatched covered with down, and run about as soon as born. They are
anxiously attended by the parents and at the least sign of danger,
conceal themselves beneath a tuft of grass or behind a small stone,
where they remain perfectly motionless until called by the old birds.
The adults frequently attempt to lead an enemy away from the young by
feigning a broken wing, or lameness. Size of eggs 1.35 × .90.
Data.--Parker County, Ind., May 22, 1901. Nest about six yards from bank
of creek, among weeds on a sand bar; a hollow in the sand lined with
weeds. Collector, Winfield S. Catlin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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