208 NEW- YORK FAUNA — BIRDS. 



ORDER IV. GRALUE. 



Bill various, but mostly straight and elongated, cylindrical or compressed, rarely 

 flattened. Neck usually long. Legs and feet long and slender ; the former 

 more or less naked above the knees. Toe3 usually three before and one 

 behind ; the posterior toe on a level with or more elevated than the rest. 

 Tail short, of from ten to twenty feathers. 



FAMILY CHARADRID^. 



Bill short or moderate, compressed. Neck moderate. Eyes large. Feet rather short : nails 

 small. Toes three or four ; when the hind toe is present, it is very short, and articulated 

 above the others. Wings moderate or lung. Tail moderate. 



GENUS CHARADRIUS. Linn^us. 



Bill shorter than the head, rather slender, straight, cylindrical, depressed at the base, some- 

 what turgid at the tip. Head and eyes large. Feet three-toed, connected at the base by 

 a membrane : naked part of the tarsus moderate. Wings long. Tail more or less rounded, 

 of twelve feathers. 



AMERICAN RING PLOVER. 



Charadrius semipalmatus. 



plate lxxix. fig 179. 



(STATE COLLECTION.) 



Tringa hiaticula. Wilson, Am. Orn. Vol. 7, p. 65, pi. 59, fig. C (adult in spring). 



C. semipalmatus. Bonatarte, Ann. Lye. N. V. Vol. 2, p. 290. Id. Am. Orn. Vol. 4, p. 92, pi. 25, fig. 4 (young). 



C. id.. Semipalmated Ring Plover. Nuttam., Man. Orn. Vol. 2, p. 24. 



C. id. Richardson, F. B. A. Vol. 2, p. 3G7. Audubon, E. of A. Vol. 5, p. 218, pi. 320. 



Egialitcs id. Bonaparte, Gcog. and Couip. List, p. 45. 



C. id. Giraud, Birds of Long island, p. 215. 



Characteristics. Toes connected at the base by a membrane. Brownish ash above. Front, 

 collar, and beneath white : frontlet and ring over the breast black. Bill 

 and feet orange ; the former black at tip. Sincipital band and auri- 

 culars black. Length, 7' 5. 



