230 



KEY A^D BESCKIPTION 



A. Plumage of the back about uniform in color. (B.) 



B. Wing, 6-7 long ; rump, orange-brown .3. Killdeer. 



B. Wing, 51-6 long ; no black band across breast. .8. Mountain Plover. 

 B. Wing less than o\ long. (C.) 



C. Culmen, | or more long ; a black or dark brown band across breast 



7. Wilson's Plover. 



C. Culmen about | long ; no black band across breast . . . 



6. Snowy Plover. 



C. Culmen less than J long. (D.) 

 D. All toes distinctly webbed at baSe ; ' fiatlitrs l)iack be- 

 tween the eye and the bill 4. Semipalmated Plover. 



D. Inner toes without distinct webbing ; no black from the eye to tlie 

 bill 5. Piping Plover. 



1. Black-bellied Plover (LVO. SqucUdrola squatiirola). — As 

 seen in the autumn and winter in the United States : a 

 short-billed, short-tailed, lar^e (for a plover), mottled, grayish- 

 brown, shore bird, 

 with grayish or whit- 

 ish under parts mot- 

 t led with more or less 

 uf blackish on the 

 breast. This is our 

 only i)l(>ver with a 

 hind toe ; it is mi- 

 nute, being only about 

 J inch long. The bird 

 derives its name from 

 its very black under 

 parts, in the breeding 

 season, in the far north. During its northward migration in 

 the spring, it is found with a more or less complete black breast 

 and fore belly. The axillary plumes- (long feathers 

 growing from the armpit and seen underneath the '^^^^^^ 

 wings) are black. (Black-breast ; Bull-head Plover ; 

 Beetle-head.) 



Length, 111; wing, '\ (7-71) ; tail, .3; tarsus, 2; culmen, IJ. Gen- 

 erally throughout the northern hemisphere, though not confined to it; 

 breeding far north, and wintering in Florida, the West Indies, and 

 northern South America. 



Black-bellied Plover 



