690 U. S. p. R. E EXP. AND SURVEYS — ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT. 



Family CHARADEIDAE. 



This family is divided by Bonaparte into the three sub-famil«s Oedicneminae, Charadrinae, 

 and Cursorinae; but as the first and last are not represented in North America, there is no 

 occasion to present them here. They are readily distinguished from the Charadrinae by well 

 marked characters. 



The characters of the Charadrinae are sufficiently well expressed in the diagnosis of the 

 family already given. The wings when folded reach beyond the tail. The head is very large^ 

 the neck short, and nearly as thick as the head. The bill in size and shape has, in some 

 instances, quite a close resemblance to that of the doves. The legs, as a general rule, have no 

 hind toe, except in Squatarola. The middle and outer toes are connected at the base by a 

 membrane. 



CHARADRIUS, Linnaeus. 



Charadrius, Linn. Syst. Nat. 1735. Type C. plumalis, L. 

 Ch. — Plumage yellowish gray, spotted. Tail transversely banded. No collar on nei^k. Tarsi and lower tliiglis uniformly 

 reticulated. Color of legs bluish greor. 



CHARADRIUS VIRGINICUS, Borck. 



Golden Plover; Bull-head. 



Charadrius plumalis, Wilson, Am. Orn. VII, 1813, 71 ; pi. lix — Sw. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 6^3.— Nuttall, Man. 



II, 1834, 16.— Add. Orn. Eiog. Ill, 1835, 623. (Not of Linnaeus.) 

 Charadrius virginicus, " Borckhadsen and Bechstein." Light. Verz. Doubl. 1823, No. 729. 

 Charadrius virginicus, " Borkh. Mus. Berolin." — Meten, Nova Acta, K. L. C. Akad. XVI, Suppl. 1834, 106; pi. xvlii. 

 Charadrius marmoradis, Wagler, Syst. Av. 1827, No. 42.— Aud. Orn. Biog.V, 1839, 575 ; pi. 300.— Ib. Syii.222 — 



Ib. Birds Am. V, 1842, 203 ; pi. 316. 

 ?Charadrius pectcralis, V\KiLL. Nouv. Diet. XXVII, 1819, 145. 

 Charadrius xanthocheilus, Jard. 111. Orn. II, pi. Ixxxv. 

 Figures.— W1L8ON, Am. Orn. VII, pi. 59, fig. 5.— Aiid. B. of Am. pi. .300, Oct. ed. V, pl. 31G.— Meten, Nova Acta, 

 XVI, Supp. pl. 18. 



Sp, Ch. — Bill rather short, legs moderate, wings long, no liiiid toe, tarsus covered before and behind with small circular or 

 licxagonal scales. Upper pirts brownish black, with numerous small circular and irregular Sjiots of golden yellow, most 

 numerous on the back and rump, and on the \ipper tail coverts, assuming the form of transverse bands, generally ; also with 

 some spots of asliy white. Entire under parts black, with a brownisli or bronzoil lustre, under tail coverts mixed or barred with 

 white. Forehead, border of the black of the neck, under tail coverts and tibitc, vvliito ; axillary feathers cinereous ; (juills, dark 

 brown ; middle portion of the sliafls white, frequently extending slightly to the webs and forming longitudinal stripes on tlie 

 shorter quills; tail dark brown, with numerous irregular bands of ashy white, and frequently tinged with golden yellow ; bill, 

 black ; legs, dark bluish brown. Younger. — Under parts dull ashy, spotted with brownish on the neck and breast, frequently more 

 or less mixed with black ; many spots of the upper parts dull ashy white ; ."ther spots, especially on the rump, golden yellow. 



Total length about 9i inches ; wing, 7 ; tail, 2J inches. 



JIab. All of North America, South America, Northern Asia, Europe. 



This bird, well known throughout the United States as the Bull-head, Field Plover, or Golden 

 Plover, appears to be one of the species that inhabit, at various seasons, the entire continent 

 of America ; rearing its young in tlie north, and wandering at other seasons to the extreme 



