166 BIRDS OF ONTARIO, 



^GIALITIS NIVOSA Cass. 

 124. Snowy Plover, (278) 



Male in breeding dresn: — Above, pale ashy-gray, little darker than in meloda; 

 top of head with a fulvous tinge ; a broad black coronal bar from eye to eye ; a 

 narrower black post-ocular stripe, tending to meet its fellow on the nape, and 

 thus encircle the fulvous area ; a broad black patcli on each side of the breast ; 

 no sign of its completion above or below ; no complete black loral stripe, but 

 indication of such in a small dark patcli on either side of base of upper man- 

 dible ; forehead, continuous with line over the eye, sides of head, excepting the 

 black post-ocular stripe, and whole under parts, excepting tlie black lateral 

 breast patches, snowy white ; no white ring complete around back of neck ; 

 primaries, blackish, especiallj- at bases and ends, the intermediate extent 

 fuscous; shaft of first, white, of others, white for a space; nearly all the 

 primaries bleaching toward bases of inner webs, but only some of the inner ones 

 with a white area on outer webs ; primary coverts like the primaries, but white- 

 tipped ; greater coverts like the back, but white-tipped ; secondaries, dark 

 brown, bleaching internally and basally in increasing extent from without 

 inwards, their shafts white along their respective white portions; tertiaries, 

 like back; several intermediate tail feathers like back, darkening toward ends; 

 two or three lateral pairs entirely white ; all the feathers more pointed than 

 usual; bill, slender and acute, black ; legs, black. Length, G.oO to 7.00; extent, 

 13.50 to 14.00; wing, 4.00 to 4.25; tail, 2.00 or less. 



H.\B. — Western Province of North America; in winter, both coasts of 

 Centi-al America and western South America to Cliili. 



Eggs, tliree, placed among the shingle on the beach, pale buff or clay color, 

 finely marked with l)lackish -brown spots. 



The Snowy Plover is a western bird very seldom seen east of the 

 Rocky Mountains, and would not have been mentioned here, but for 

 the following notice of it which appears in the Aiik for October, 

 1885. It is contributed l)y E. E. Thompson, of Toronto. "A speci- 

 men of this bird was shot here by Mr. J. Forman, May, 1880, and 

 is now in the rooms of the Toronto Gun Club. It was at the time 

 in company with some Piping Plovers. This .specimen answers in 

 general to the description in 'Coues' Key' and fully in regard to 

 the bill ; it differs in being much lighter in plumage. I had no 

 opportunity to make measurements, but in the same case were meloda 

 and semipalviata, and comparison with these makes me almost certain 

 that it is nivona. The bill is noticeably long, black and slender. I 

 never met the Vjird before, and have no material to aid ine in settling 

 the point." 



If Mr. Thompson has correctly identified the specimen described, 

 it can only be regarded as a casual sti-aggler from the far west which 

 may not be seen here again. 



