CHARADRIUS RUBIDUS* 



RUDDY PLOVER. 



[Plate LXIII. Fig. 3.] 

 Arct. Zool. No. 404.— Lath. Si/n. in., p. 195, No. 2.— Turt. Si/st. p. 415. 



This bird is frequently found in company with the Sanderling, which, 

 except in color, it very much resembles. It is generally seen on the 

 seacoast of New Jersey in May and October, on its way to and from its 

 breeding place in the north. It runs with great activity along the edge 

 of the flowing or retreating waves, on the sands, picking up the small 

 bivalve shell-fish, which supply so many multitudes of the Plover and 

 Sandpiper tribes. 



I should not be surprised if the present species turn out hereafter to 

 be the Sanderling itself, in a diSerent dress. Of many scores which I 

 examined, scarce two were alike ; in some the plumage of the back was 

 almost plain ; in others the black plumage was ju.st shooting out. This 

 was in the month of October. Naturalists, however, have considered it 

 as a separate species ; but have given us no further particulars, than 

 that " in Hudson's Bay it is known by the name of Mistchaychekiska- 

 weshish;"f a piece of information certainly very instructive! 



The Ruddy Plover is eight inches long, and fifteen in extent ; the bill 

 is black, an inch long, and straight ; sides of the neck, and whole upper 

 parts, speckled largely with white, black and ferruginous ; the feathers 

 being centered with black, tipped with white, and edged with ferrugi- 

 nous, giving the bird a very motley appearance ; belly and vent pure 

 white ; wing quills black, crossed with a band of white ; lesser coverts 

 whitish, centred with pale olive, the first two or three rows black ; two 

 middle tail feathers black ; the rest pale cinereous, edged with white ; 

 legs and feet black ; toes bordered with a very narrow membrane. On 

 dissection, both males and females varied in their colors and markings. 



* This is the preceding species in perfect summer plumage, 

 t Latham. 



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