232 



KEY AND DESCRIPTION 



webbed. In feeding, the small flocks of five to ten scatter, 

 but on the wing form a compact bunch. (Ring-neck.) 



Length, 7 ; wing, 4| (4|-5) ; tail, 2\ ; tarsus, 1 ; culmen, h North 

 America ; breeding in the Arctic regions, and wintering from the Gulf 

 States to Brazil. 



5. Piping Plover (277. ^giaUtis meldda). — A wary, coast- 

 living, short-billed, ashy-backed, white-bellied plover, with 

 a narrow, black collar on the sides, but not complete across 

 the breast, and a narrow, black stripe from eye to eye above 

 the forehead. In winter the black is replaced by brownish 



gray. Its notes are 

 l)eculiarly sweet and 

 musical, a peep- 

 peep-j)eep-o. (Pale 

 Ring-neck.) 



Length, 7; wing, 4| 

 (41-4D; tail, 2J; tar- 

 .sus, I ; culmen, \ near- 

 ly. Eastern North 

 America; breeding 

 from the coast of ^'i^- 

 ginia north to New- 

 foundland, and winter- 

 ing from Florida southward. The Belted Piping Plover (277". yE. m. 

 circumcincla) is nuich like the last, but has the black collar complete 

 across the breast. The yoiiinj lack this cumplete collar. Mississippi 

 Vallej' ; brei-ding from northern Illimtis northward, and wintering from 

 the Gulf scnithward. Occasionally eastward to the Atlantic coast. 



6. Snowy Plover (278. ^giaUtis nivdsa). — An extreme 

 western, grayish-brown-backed plover, with the forehead, line 

 over eye, somewhat of a collar around the back neck, and all 

 lower parts pure white. Above the white forehead there is a 

 black patch on the crown, another on the ear coverts, and a 

 third on the side of the breast. The young has the black mark- 

 ings replaced by ashy-brown. 



Length, 6^ ; wing, 4^ ; tail, 2 ; tarsus, 1 ; culmen, f . Western North 

 America from California ea.stward to Kansa.s and Texas ; wintering in 

 Central America and western South America. 



Piping Plover 



