104 PR^COCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



^gialitis alexandrina nivosa. 



THE SNOWY PLOVER. 



JEgialitis nivosa, Cassix, in Bairds B. N. Am. 1858, 696 (San Francisco, Cal.). — Baird, Cat. N. 



Am. B. 1858, no. 509. 

 yEijialUis cantianus, var. nivosus, liiDfiW. Am. Nat. VIII. 1874, 109. — CouES, Check List, 1873, 



App. p. 135, no. 401. 

 yEgialUis cantianus nivosus, Krnaw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1882, no. 521. — CouEs, Check List, 2d ed. 



1882, no. 591. 

 JEgialitis cantianus, CouES, Key, 1872, 245. 



IIab. Western Province uf North America, both coasts of Middle America, and Western South 

 America as far as Chili ; Cuba ] ^ 



Sp. Char. Bill slender, wliolly deep black, as long as the middle toe. Adult male : Forehead, 

 superciliary" region, indistinct nuchal collar, and entire lower parts, pure white ; a band across the 

 fore part of the crown, auriculars, and transverse patch on each side of the breast, black. Upper 



%X^ 



fl«^^iil 



Summer plumage. 



^m^ 



parts, rather light brownish gray, the crown and occiput usually tinged with light reddish buff. 

 Primaries, dusky with white shafts, the inner c^uills marked with white ; inner secondaries almost 



1 A. tenuirostris, Lawii. (Ann. Lye. N. Y. VII. Feb. 1862, p. 455), presumably the same species. 

 The description is as follows : — 



" FcTiuilc : Crown, occiput, and back cinereous, the feathers with grayish-white margins ; wing-coverts 

 somewhat darker than the baclv, the ends of the larger coverts white, forming a transverse bar on the 

 wing ; primaries umber-brown with tlie inner webs lighter, except at the end, and having the shafts 

 white ; the secondaries are of the same color as the primaries, and tipped with white ; tertiaries j^aler and 

 largely marked with white ; scapulars ashy brown, ligliter on the inner webs, and having both webs 

 crossed with rather obsolete narrow brown bars ; the middle upper tail-coverts are pale oclneous brown, 

 the lateral ones white ; the four central tail-feathers are light ochreous brown at the base, becoming darker 

 toward their ends ; the other tail-feathers are white, those next the central ones being pale ochreous at 

 the end ; front, a line over the eye, cheeks, a collar on the hind neck, and entire under plumage, pure 

 white ; a semi-collar of ashy brown on each side of the \ipper part of the breast ; bill black, with a small 

 space at the base of the under mandible of dull orange ; irides black ; tarsi and toes purplish black. 



" Length about 6| in. ; wing, 3J ; tail, I4 ; bill from front, 'J ; tarsi -}§. 



" ITuhitat, Cuba. 



" This species is allied to A. mdodus, but is rather smaller ; the bill is longer, depressed at the base, 

 and regularly tapering to the end, where it is comparatively sharp ; in the latter it is quite obtuse and 

 different in form ; there is less white on the ijuills, with more on the tail, and the tarsi are longer than 

 those of A. viclodus." 



The above description, measurements and all, accords in every respect with the adult female of ^^. 

 nivosa, and is probably of a specimen of that species. But a .single specimen was captured, this being a 

 female caught with a net while sitting on her three eggs ; the time being July, and the place Guantanamo, 

 on the south coast of the eastern part of the island. 



