418 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



ous spots and blotches of dark-brown, chiefly at their greater 

 end. They vary in dimensions from 1.65 by 1.10 inch to 

 1.50 by 1.08 inch ; but one brood is reared in the season. 



3]GI ALIUS •WlLSOmUS. — iOrd.) Cassin. 



Wilson's Plover; Ring-neck. 



Charadrim Wihonius, Ord. Ed. Wils. Orn., IV. (1825) 77. Nutt. Man., II, 

 (1834) 21. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 73; V. (1839) 677. lb., Birds Am., V. 

 (1842) 214. 



Description. 



Smaller than the preceding; bill rather long and robust. 



Male. — Front, and stripe over the ej'e, and entire under parts, white; front with 

 a second band of black above the white band; stripe from the base of the bill to the 

 eye and wide transverse band on the breast, brownish-black ; upper parts of head 

 and body light ashy-brown, with the feathers frequently edged and tipped with pale- 

 ashy ; back of the neck encircled with a ring of white, edged above with fine light- 

 reddish; quills brown, with white shafts; shorter coverts tipped with white; outer 

 feathers of the tail white, middle feathers dark -brown; bill black; legs yellow. 



Female. — Without the band of black in front, and with the pectoral band dull- 

 reddish and light ashy-brown; iris reddish-brown. 



Total length, seven and three quarter inches; wing, four and a half inches; tail, 

 two inches. 



Hab. — Middle and Southern States on the Atlantic, and the same coast of South 

 America. 



This species is found in New England only as a somewhat 

 rare visitor in the autumn, after it has reared its young in a 

 more southern locality. I think that it seldom passes north 

 of the southern coast of Cape Cod; but it is there occa- 

 sionally seen in the early part of September, gleaning its 

 food of animalcula) and small shell-fish and insects on the 

 sandy beach of the ocean. 



The Wilson's Plover is more southern in its habits tlian 

 either of the succeeding species ; but ic breeds abundantly 

 on the seacoast of New Jersey. The nest is nothing but a 

 hollow scratched in the sand, above higli-water mark, with 

 a few bits of seaweed or grass for its lining. The eggs are 

 laid about the first week in June. They are, like those 

 of the other Waders, pyriform in shape ; and, when placed 

 in the nest, their small ends are together in the middle of 

 the nest. They almost exactly resemble tbe eggs of the 



