BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 



335 



BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER {Squatarola squatarola). 



Common or local names: Blackbreasted Plover; Blackbreast; Beetle-head; Bull-head 

 Chuckle-head; Bottle-head; Gump. 



Adult (Spring). 



Young (Fall.) 



Length. — About 11 inches; bill 1.10; usually has a small hind toe. 



Adult in Spring. — Above varied with blackish and ashy white; hind head 

 and back black, spotted and marked with white; tail white, barred with 

 brownish black; wings showing a band of white in flight; sides of head, 

 fore neck, throat, breast and upper belly black, bordered broadly by 

 white on each side, from forehead to lower breast; axillary feathers 

 (showing under the raised wings) black; legs and feet dusky lead color; 

 adult spring female smaller, duller and with less pure black. 



Adult in Late Summer and Fall. — Upper parts dark brown, profusely 

 speckled with white; under parts white, with an occasional black feather; 

 tail and wings as in spring; black breast sometimes retained until fall. 



Young. — Upper parts lighter and with a golden shade on each feather; 

 under parts whitish; breast streaked with gray. 



Field Marks. — Whitish tail and upper tail coverts, and white hand in the loing 

 plainly seen when bird is in flight; black axillaries seen on sides of body 

 under raised wing, which is white beneath, in strong contrast to axillaries. 



Distinguishing Marks. — When in hand the small hind toe (other Plovers 

 have none) and basal web between outer and middle toes. 



Notes. — Not unlike the toor-a-wee of the Bluebird, but lower in pitch, more 

 prolonged and mournful (Hoffmann). 



Range. — Nearly cosmopolitan. Breeds on Arctic coast of North America, 

 from Point Barrow to Boothia and Melville peninsulas, and also on 

 Arctic coast of Russia and Siberia; winters from the Mediterranean to 

 South Africa, in India and Australia, and from California, Louisiana and 

 North Carolina to Brazil and Peru; in migration occurs throughout the 

 United States, in Greenland and Bermuda; accidental in Hawaii. 



