APHRIZIDjE: SURF-BIRDS AND TURNSTONES. 783 



as middle toe and claw. Toes very short, the lateral of unequal lengths. Tarsus and tibia 

 entirely reticulate. Sexes alike. One species. This is a good genus, so recognized by most 

 authors since I founded it in 1860 ; wrongly reduced to a subgenus of ^gialitis by the A. 0. U. 

 Committee in 1886: observe the excellent characters it presents, and see Siiakpe, Cat. B. Brit. 

 Mus. xxiv. 189G, p. 146 and p. 240. 



P. mouta'nus. (Lat. montanus, of mountains. Badly named: it is a prairie bird.) 

 Prairie Plover. "Mountain" Plover. ^ 9, iu summer: Upper parts uniform 

 grayish-brown ; in most breeding individuals the shade is pure, but in many cases the feathers 

 are skirted with tawny or ochrey. Under parts entirely white (no black belt or patches) ; but 

 breast often sliaded across with diffuse fulvous or gray. A sharp black loral line from bill to 

 eye, cutting off white forehead and superciliary line from white of other parts. A coronal black 

 bar across sinciput, varying in width from a mere line to a band nearly half the length of crown 

 in width. Quills blackisli, shaft of 1st white, of the others white for a space ; some of the inner 

 priuuiries with white spaces toward bases of outer webs, and secondaries a little pale on inner 

 webs. Tertials and greater coverts like back, the latter white-tipped. Tail-feathers like 

 back, blackening toward ends, outermost pale throughout; all tipped with whitish. Bill 

 bl.ick, slender ; legs pale plumbeous ; the toes darker. Length 9.00; extent 18.00; wing 5.50- 

 6.00; tail 2.50-3.00; bill 0.90; tibise bare over 0.50; tarsus 1.60; middle toe and claw 

 0.90. (J 9 > in winter: No black coronal or loral stripe ; otherwise, generally as in summer; 

 but general plumage more rusty, with more decided wash of color on breast. Young : As 

 last said; whole upper parts rusty from extensive edgings of all the feathers; sides of head 

 and neck similarly suffused with tawny ; ground color of upper parts also darker than that of 

 adults. Chick in down : Forehead, sides of head and under parts white, with sulphury-yellow 

 tinge. Crown, back, and tibiae sul))hury or tawny-yellow, closely and evenly mottled with 

 black. Unmarked line over eye ; black ear-spot. Bill light at extreme base below, and at 

 point. Livid patch of naked skin (m neck. An interesting, isolated species, i)lentifully and 

 generally distributed in western U. S., Plains to the Pacific; N. to lat. 49° at least. I have 

 shot it iu Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico (June), Arizona, Montana (lat. 49°, June), 

 and on the California coast (November). Breeds mainly in northern portions of this range, 

 including some adjoining portions of the British Provinces, and extends in winter from middle 

 California and W. T(!xas into L. California and Mexico ; casual in Florida. It inhabits the most 

 sterile prairie as well as better watered regions, quite independently of water, and is not in the 

 least aquatic ; even on the California coast it haunts the plain, not the marsh, u)ud-tiat, or beach. 

 Feeds chiefly upon insects, especially grasshoppers, and is generally seen in loose straggling 

 companies of small extent. Nest anywhere on the bare prairie; eggs 3-4, 1.40-1.50 X 1.10, 

 less pointed than Plovers' eggs usually arc, olive-drab with a brown shade, profusely dotted 

 all over, but especially at the larger end, with blackish, dark brown and neutral tint ; mark- 

 ings mere dots and points, the largest scarcely exceeding a pin's head. They are laid June and 

 July. {^. montana, A. 0. U. Lists.) 



Family APHRIZID.<E : Surf-birds and Turnstones. 



A small family which I named as above in the Key, 2tl ed. 1884, p. (iO."), to be constituted 

 by the genera Apliiiza and Arcnnria, and placed next to, but apart from, Htnmitopodidic; 

 though at that time I left Aphriza as a fiueried genus of Charadriidte. and did not remove 

 Arcnnria from its customary association with the (.)yster-catchers. The proposititui has found 

 favor and the name has been adopted by the A. (). U. There is j)rol)ably no better way of 

 arranging these two unconformable genera, whicli certainly have much iu citmmou, and servo 

 as cijunectine: links between the two great groups of limicoline birds — the pluvialiue and the 



