256 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER 

 Squatarola squatarola {Liinurus) 



A. O. U. Xumber 270 See Color I'late jg 



Other Names. — Black-breast ; Black-breasted Plover ; 

 Bull-head ; Bull-head Plover ; Beetle-head ; Bottle-head ; 

 Chuckle-head; Hollow-head; Owl-head; Whistling 

 Plover; Whistling Field Plover; Pilot; May Cock; 

 Swiss Plover; Ox-eye; Four-toed Plover; Gump; Gray 

 Plover (autumn); Mud Plover; Pale-belly (young). 



General Description. — Length, 12 inches. In sum- 

 mer, upper parts black and white, lower parts black ; in 

 winter, whitish all over but tinged with brown above. 

 Four toes, but hind toe very small ; outer and middle 

 toes webbed at base ; bill rather short. 



Color. — Adults in Summer: Forehead, crozvn, 

 sides of head to upper level of eye, back of neck, and 

 sides of same, pure zvhile with a few dusky spots on 

 nape and center of neck; rest of upper parts, including 

 coverts, shoulders, and inner secondaries, white, each 

 feather with a small exposed dusky area, these form- 

 ing bars on the inner secondaries ; tail and upper 

 coverts, barred with dusky ; betoiv, including lores, 

 chin, throat, part of side of head, breast, and abdomen, 

 pure blackish-brown; under tail-coverts, white; pri- 

 maries, dark brown blackening at ends ivith large zvhite 

 areas at base ; bill and feet, dusky-gray ; eye, remark- 

 ably large and lustrous, deep brown. Adults in 

 Winter: Ground color all over, whitish; upper parts, 



tinged with pale brown ; crown, yellowish streaked with 

 dusky ; sides of head, back of neck, throat, and breast, 

 finely streaked with brownish ; feathers of back, of 

 wing-coverts, and of inner secondaries, with wedge- 

 shaped dusky centers ; rest of under parts, unmarked, 

 thus showing none of the black area so conspicuous in 

 summer ; bill, feet, and eye as in summer ; intermediates 

 between these two plumages, showing an admi.xture of 

 black and white below, are very common. Young: 

 Upper parts, lighter with a golden shade on each 

 feather; under parts, whitish; breast, streaked with 

 grayish. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : A mere depression in the 

 ground, lined with grass and leaves. Eggs : 4, light 

 buffy-olive to deep olive-buff, heavily spotted with 

 sei)ia or black. 



Distribution. — Nearly cosmopolitan ; breeds on the 

 Arctic coast from Point Barrow to Boothia and Mel- 

 ville peninsulas, and also on the 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 and in 

 Greenland and the Bermudas ; accidental in the Hawaiian 

 Islands. 



The largest of our Plovers, the Black-bellied or 

 Black-breast, is also the shyest. I recall that 

 once, in boyhood, I was trying to creep up on a 

 flat to get a shot at a small flock — of course in 



vain. A fisherman said to me, as I returned : 

 " Sonny, you might as well try to walk up to an 

 old Black Duck in broad daylight as to them 

 'ere Plovers." 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER (J nat. size) 

 The largest and shyest of the Plovers 



