CHARADRIID.E — CHARADRIIN.E : PLOVER. 781 



grayish-buff, mottled with hhick, and with a bhick eye-stripe, white collar, and white ends of 

 wing-tufts; below, white. U. S., chiefly west of the Rocky Mts. ; Utah; Kansas; California 

 coast, breeding and wintering, yet found S. to Chili in winter; also, coast of Texas, and Cuba ; 

 Florida, breeding, March-Aprih Toronto, Ontario, casual. A specimen (^, Corpus Christi, 

 Texas, June 24, Sennett), though in midsummer plumage, has no fulvous on head; no trace 

 of loral mark ; coronal bar, post-ocular stripe, and lateral pectoral blotch dark brown, not 

 black. Eggs 3; tone and style of coloration about as in ^. ivilsonia ; size 1.20 X 0.90, thus 

 about as in jE. melocla, but markings more numerous and scratchy. This is the American 

 representative of the common Kentisli Plover, JE. cuntiana (or alexandrinci) of authors ; but 

 it is perfectly distinct, and should never have been united therewith, or even reduced to a sub- 

 species. In combining the two, in the original edition of the Key, 1872, I said that I had then 

 had " no opportunity of a direct comparison ; " and in making it a subspecies ofcantiana in the 

 2d edition, 1884, I added the saving clause, "probably specifically distinct," which should have 

 prevented furtiier misunderstanding. Tiie species has ac([uired the following synonymy since 

 its original description as ^E. nivosa Cass. in Bd. B. N. A. 1858, p. 096: Charadrius canti- 

 aniis Heerm. P. It. R. Rep. x, pt. vi, 1859, p. 04. JE. cantiana Coues, Key, 1872, p. 245. 

 y®. cantiana var. nivosa Coues, B. N. W. 1874, p. 4.'3C). ^gialites cantianus nirosus 

 Coues, Key, 1884, p. 603. Charadrius cantianus nirosus Seeboum, Charad. 1887, p. 171. 

 jE. ulexandrina nirosa Stej. 1884 ; Bi>. I^rew. and Rinow. Water B. N. A. i, 1884, p. 164. 

 jE. tenuirostris Lawr. 1802 (Cuba). (A. 0. U. No. 278.) 



(Subgenus Ochthodromus.) 



.^. wilso'nla. (To Alexander Wilson.) Wil.son'.s Plover. Adult (J, in summer : Above, 

 pale ashy-gray (dry-sand color), the feathers with still paler edges, the shade tending to ful- 

 vous on nape and hind neck. A narrow black band across vertex, not reacliing eyes, being 

 cut off by white of forehead whicli extends backward over each eye to nape. A blackish loral 

 stripe, not prolonged beiiiud eye, not meeting its fellow over base of bill, where the white fore- 

 head comes down to bill. A black half-ring on fore-neck, not completed around back of neck. 

 White of throat passing around hind-neck as a slight collar. Under parts, excepting the black 

 bar, entirely white. Primaries blackish, bleacliing toward tlieir bases on inner webs, the short 

 inner ones also with wliite on outer webs. Shaft of 1st primary almost entirely white; of 

 others brown, then a long white space, then blackening at end. Secondaries, e.xcepting long 

 inner ones, mostly white on inner webs, dark on outer. Middle and intermediate tail-feathers 

 like back, growing dusky toward tlieir ends, nearly all with white tips, and outer one or two 

 white. No colored ring round eye; iris dark brown. Bill entirely black. Legs Hesh -colored ; 

 outer toe semipalmate, inner cleft. Lengtii 7.00-8.00; winii 4.50-5.00; tail 2.00, nearly 

 square; tarsus about 1.10; middle toe and claw 0.90; bill 0.90, extremely large and stout, 

 not much shorter than head, quite as long as middle toe and claw. Adult 9- in summer: 

 Like the J; but tl)e black coronal, loral, and pectoral bands replaced l)y dark gray, often witlx 

 a fulvous tinge; still, the tendency of the bars is to blacken, especially on the vertex; in many 

 specimens the sexes are not readily discriminated, even in the breeding season, and they are 

 •piite alike in winter. The appearance of a fulvous or rufous tinge, best marked before and 

 after the breeding season, indicates the relationships of this species to the Mongolian Plover, 

 and thus the combination of the two in the same subgenus Ochthodromus, a.s is done by 

 IJriiish autliorities, not by the A. 0. l'. Young : Similar to the adult 9'' "" black on vertex 

 or lore; a broad band of the color of tin- back across the neck in front. Downy young are butf 

 above; mottled anil clouded with black ; a black stripe liehiiid eye; collar around hind-neck, 

 front-sides of head, end of wing-tufts, and under parts, white. Seacoast of S. Atlantic and 

 Gulf States, common; N. regularly to the Middle States, rarely ti> \ew KiiL'Ianil and even 



