152 NOTES ON THE 



lighter on Ihe latter; front, and line over and under the eye 

 white; another band of black in front above the white band; 

 stripe from the base of the bill towards the occiput brownish- 

 black; ring encircling the neck, and a wide band on the breast 

 black; throat white, which color extends upwards around the 

 neck; other under parts white; quills brownish-black with 

 about half their inner webs white, shorter primaries with a 

 large spot of white on their outer webs, secondaries widely 

 tipped or edged with white; tail feather j^ale rufous at base; 

 the four middle feathers light olive- brown tipped with white 

 and with a sub terminal band of black; lateral feathers widely 

 tipped with white; entire upper plumage frequently edged 

 and tipped with rufous. 



Length, 9.50; wing, 6.50; tail, 3.50. 



Habitat, temperate North America. 



J:GIALIT1S SEMIFALHATA Bonaparte. (274.) 

 SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. 



The lateness of the season when this Plover enters Minne- 

 sota, early suggested that it must breed here, but no nests 

 were fonnd for many years. Flocks of a dozen or less are 

 quite uniformly met with in the last week in April along the 

 streams, and about the jionds and lakes, more after the man- 

 ner of the Snipes than the Plovers, which affect the dry open 

 plains. After remaining where they are frequently seen for 

 about ten days, they disappear as abruptly as do the Swallows 

 in autumn, and are seldom seen again till August 20th to the 

 25th after which they remain until the early part of October 

 before taking final leave of us for the more genial climes, said 

 to be Brazil and Peru and South America. At this season 

 they gather into quite large flocks before retiring, which we 

 are told become much larger as they gradually work their 

 way southward. The nest is little more than a slight hollow, 

 excavated in the sand by the bird, near the shores of ponds, 

 and contains the stereotyped number, four eggs of a dull yel- 

 lowish color, spotted and blotched all over with varying 

 shades of darkish-brown. They are almost typically pyri- 

 form in shape. One nest was discovered near St. Paul in 1879, 

 by Mr. Gober, who sent the eggs away to some eastern oi3l- 

 ogist as a capital trophy, but not until I had an opportuity to 

 examine them, and see the female, obtained at the same time. 

 The other nest was obtained by a resident of Minneapolis, and 

 not far from the city, and still more recently with which the 

 bird was secured also. I hear of one, also found quite as near 

 the city, by a young man who. for some reason best known to 



