18 



WADING BIRDS. 



clawn, in front of the place they have selected to pass the 

 night. The fowlers now surrounding the spot, prostrate 

 themselves on the ground when the call is heard, and as 

 soon as the birds are collected together, they rise up from am- 

 bush, and by shouts, and the throwing up of sticks in the air, 

 succeed so far in intimidating the Plovers that they lower 

 their flight, and thus striking against the net, it falls upon 

 them. In this, and most other countries, their flesh, in 

 the autumn, and particularly that of the young birds, is 

 esteemed as a delicacy, and often exposed for sale in the 

 markets of the principal towns. 



The Golden Plover is about 10^ inches long, and 21 in alar stretch. 

 Bill and legs black. Upper plumage greenish black, regularly spot- 

 ted on the tips and margins with lemon yellow, the spots whitish 

 on the wing-coverts ; greater coverts and primaries unspotted. Tail 

 barred. Front and a space above the eyes white, sides of the neck 

 also white, but spotted with dusky and yellow. Below black, spot- 

 ted with yellow on the sides of the breast under the wing. At the 

 commencement and close of the breeding season many individuals 

 are seen with the under plumage varied with black and white. 



PIPING RINGED PLOVER. 



(CJiaradriusmelodus yOvij}. Bonap. Synops.et Am. Orn. 4. p. 74. pi. 

 24. fig. 3. [summer dress.] C. hiaticula, var. Wilson, v. p. 30. 

 pi. 37. fig. 3. Phil. Museum, No. 4150.) 



Sp. Charact. — Whitish ash color, tinged with brown; front, col- 

 lar, and beneath, white ; frontlet and sides of the neck, beneath 

 the white collar, black ; the bill and feet orange, but the former 

 black towards the tip.— Mult, with a black frontlet and inter- 

 rupted neck ring. — Young, and autumnal ? bird without the dark 

 marks on the head and neck, and with the bill wholly blackish. 



This species, like the Semipalmated Plover, is a common 

 inhabitant of our sea coast, arriving in the middle states 



