774 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMICOLJE. 



Bill black and oranpe. Back hair-brown. One heavy black ring on fore-neck, a white one on hind-neck, 



and black bar on head. N. Am ' . . . semipalmata 



Feet less semipalmate ; no evident web between inner and middle toe, that between outer and middle reaching 

 only to end of 1st joint of the latter. 



Bill variable. (Subgenus .Egialitis proper.) 



Bill moderate, black and orange. J^.ack hair-brown ; broad black ring on neck and bar on head ; lores 



black. Wing 5.00. Europe, etc. ; Greenland hiatictila 



Bill slenderer, black. Colors as before. Wing 4.50. Asia, etc. ; Pacific coast, straggler . . aubia 

 Bill very slender, black. Back pale gray, a black bar on head and patch on side of breast, never com- 

 pleted as a ring ; lores white. Western N. Am nivosa 



Bill very short and stubby, orange and black. Back pale gray ; black bar on head ; white collar on hind 

 neck : lores white. 



Black collar on neck incomplete in front. Chiefly Eastern N. Am meloda 



Black collar completed on neck in front. Ciuefly Interior N. Am m. circumcincla 



Bill large and stout, black. (Subgenus Ochthodromus.) 



Bill extremely large, as long as middle toe and claw. Black ring across fore-neck and bar on head. S. 



Atlantic Coast Wilsonia 



Bill moderately large, shorter tlian middle toe alone. Rufous brown ring around neck, and sides of 

 head mostly black, witli a white line over lores. Asia, etc., Alaska, straggler mongola 



Suhgemis (Oxyechus : Eilldeers.) 



JE. voci'fera. (Lat. vociferns, voice-bearing, noisy ; vox, voice ; ferre, to fetch or carry^ 

 Figs. 523, 524, 526.) Chattering Plover. Noisy Plover. Killdeer Plover. Kil- 

 DEE. Adult ^ 9 : Above, grayish-brown, with an olive shade, and in high plumage a slight 



bronzy lustre. Rump and upper tail-cov- 

 erts bright-colored, very variable in tint, 

 from tawny or orange-brown to cinnamon- 

 brown or chestnut. Forehead with a white 

 baud from eye to eye, more or less pro- 

 longed as a superciliary stripe, and a black 

 band above this white one. A white collar 

 around hind neck, continuous with white 

 of throat. A black collar around back of 

 neck, continuous with a black breast band. 

 Behind the latter another black breast belt. 

 Thus the fore parts ai'e encircled with one 

 complete black ring, behind which is a 

 black half-ring on breast, before which 

 latter is a complete white ring-. A white 

 stripe over and behind eye ; a dusky stripe 

 below eye. Under parts entirely pure white, except the two pectoral belts. Primary quills^ 

 blackish ; a white space on outer webs of most of them, forming an oblique series, and a longer 

 white space on their inner webs. Secondaries mostly white, but with black areas in increasing 

 extent from within outward. Long inner secondaries like back. Tail-feathers singularly 

 variegated ; several inner pairs like back, insensibly blackening toward their ends, then light- 

 ening again, and usually with rusty tips; lateral ones gaining more and more of the bright 

 color of rump, with more definite black subterminal bars, and pure white tips ; outermost pair 

 mostly white, with the rufous shade and several broken black bars. The effect of all this, 

 variegation is very striking when the parts are displayed in flight. Bill black ; eye black, 

 with a bright orange or red ring around it on the edges of tlie eyelids ; feet of a variable 

 pale flesh color. Length 9.00-10.00 or more, very variable; extent 20.00 or more; wing 

 6.00-0.50; tail .3.50-4.00, pr(>porti(»nally longer and more rounded than usual in the genus, 

 and the principal character of this subgenus; bill 0.80; tibise bare 0.80; tarsus L40-L50 ; 

 middle toe and claw L 12. ^ 9, young: The black bands replaced by gray ; upper parts.. 



Fio. 523. — KiUdeer Plover, nat. size. (Ad. nat. del. E. C.) 



