778 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMICOLjE. 



Fig. 529. — 

 European Ring 

 Plover. ( From 

 Seebohm's Char- 

 adriidse.) 



JE. du'bia. 



joint of the latter ; no colored ring round eye ? One description would answer for the black 

 markings of both, but in this species these are very heavy ; there are white touches on the 

 lower eyelids, and the white patch behind the eye is well marked. Upper parts hair-brown, 

 as before, and tail also as in ^. semipahnata. Primaries blackish-brown, the outer 4 or 5 

 with white only on the shafts for a space near their ends, the white beginning 

 to invade the webs on the 4th or 5th, and enlarging in width with diminishing 

 length on the rest. Secondaries white with dark ends diminishing in length 

 inward till one or two of the short inner ones are almost entirely white ; long 

 flowing innermost ones, however, like back. Length about 7.50; wing 5.00; 

 tail 2.45; bill 0.60, orange, with black tip; tarsus 0.95 ; middle toe and claw 

 0.85; feet orange; claws black; iris brown. Young: Like that of semi- 

 pahnata; no black on vertex; that of side of head and around neck dusky- 

 gray; whitish front, line over eye, and under eyelid ; primaries quite dark, with 

 white spaces on shafts and webs well marked ; feathers of upper parts with pale 

 beady tips ; ends of even middle tail-feathers white. Widely distributed in the 

 Old World; Greenland and Cumberland Sound, N. Am. (Auk, 1889, p. 217), 

 where it is known to breed. Thus it is not a mere straggler in this country, 

 and I am able to describe it from an American specimen. Eggs not certainly 

 distinguishable from those of our Ring-neck ; coloration the same ; size averag- 

 ing a trifle more, about L40 X LOO. 



(Lat. dubia, dubious, doubtful; but there is nothing in question about the bird, 

 except its name. Fig. 531.) European Lesser Eing Plover. Adult (J 9 : Closely re- 

 sembling the last, but smaller, and otherwise distinct. Black of vertex and auriculars sharply 

 bordered behind with white ; no white on lower eyelid ; white frontlet small, not reaching to 

 the bill. Shaft of 1st 

 primary alone white; 

 bill slender, black, or 

 yellow only at base of 

 lower mandible ; legs 

 flesh -color; a bright 

 yellow ring around 

 eye; iris dark brown. 

 Length about 6.00 ; bill 

 0.60; wing 4.50; tail 

 2.30, almost square ; 

 tarsus 0.90. Youiig : 

 Difiiers much as young 

 hiaticula does. Ring 

 around neck dusky- 

 gray; that on side of 

 head chiefly reduced 

 to a loral stripe. No 

 black across vertex ; 

 white of forehead 

 soiled. Upper parts 

 darker than in adult, 



in an early stage witli pale or fulvous edgings of the feathers. This species ranges very widely 

 in Europe, Asia, Africa, etc., and has occurred casually on f)ur Pacific coast, in Alaska and 

 California. It has a profusion of names, the earliest Latin one of which appears to be 

 Charadrius duhius ScOP. 1786. C. curonicus Gm. 1788, of 2d-4th editions of the Key, as of 



•European Ring Plover. (From Seebohm's Charadriidae.) 



