72 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus SQUATAROLA Cuvier. 



Squatarola Cuvier, Regne Animal, i, 1817, 467. (Type, by tautonymy, Tringa 

 squatarola Linnaeus.) 



Large Charadriidse (wing 178-199 mm.) with a minute hallux, 

 large, stout bill, and spotted upper parts, the under parts largely 

 uniform black in summer adults. 



Bill shorter than head, very stout, its depth at gonydeal angle equal 

 to more than one-fifth the length of exposed culmen, the broad nasal 

 fossa occupying about basal half of maxilla, the distal half of culmen 

 rather strongly convex, the gonys faintly convex, with basal angle 

 prominent. Wing long and very pointed, the longest primary 

 (outermost) exceeding distal secondaries by much more than half the 

 length of wing and extending greatly beyond tips of longest ter- 

 tials. Tail decidedly more than one-third as long as wing (nearly 

 as long as from bend to tip of distal secondaries), truncate, but mid- 

 dle pair of rectrices slightly longest. Tarsus nearly one-fourth as 

 long as wing, slender, covered all round Yvith small hexagonal scales, 

 these somewhat larger in front; middle toe, without claw, between half 

 and two-thirds as long as tarsus, the lateral toes much shorter, the 

 outer slightly longer than the inner one; hallux present but minute 

 (almost vestigial), with claw stout and straight; a well-developed 

 web between basal phalanges of outer and middle toes, and a distinct 

 though much smaller one between inner and middle toes; bare 

 portion of tibia shorter than middle toe or culmen. 



Coloration. — Adults spotted above with white and dusky, in sum- 

 mer with forehead, sides of head, and posterior under parts immacu- 

 late white, the remaining under parts uniform black. 



Bange. — Circumpolar regions, south in winter to Brazil, Peru, 

 South Africa, Austraha, PhiHppines, etc. (Monotypic.) 



SQUATAROLA SQUATAROLA (Linnaeus). 



BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 



Adults in hreeding plumage (sexes alike). — Upper parts pale gray or 

 grayish white, the forehead, superciliaiy region, and sides of neck 

 nearly pure wdiite and unspotted, the back, scapulars, and wing- 

 coverts with irregular transverse spots of brownish black (this some- 

 times predominating), the rump of ten with irregular transverse spots 

 or bars of the same; primaries dusky, their shafts white for middle 

 portion, the proximal quills frequently with a more or less distinct 

 longitudinal mark or narrow stripe of white on outer webs; tail 

 white, narrowly and irregularly barred with blackish; loral, subor- 

 bital, auricular and malar regions, chin, throat, foreneck and under 

 parts as far as lower abdomen, uniform black, with a faint bronzy or 

 coppery gloss; lower abdomen, anal region, and under tail-coverts 



