No. 55.] 



BIRD NAMES. 



189 



Adult, and young, in fall and winter. Not now " black- 

 bellied," but a "gray" plover; without the positive contrasts just 

 described ; clothed instead with Quaker-like simplicity. Upper 

 parts with neck and portions of breast finely streaked and 

 speckled with grayish brown and white ; the upper parts some- 

 times washed here and there with faint yellow. Remaining 

 under parts white. Bill and legs less black, or grayish in tone. 



No 55 tall oi Wiiitei Plumaj^e 



Measurements about as follows : length eleven and a quarter 

 to twelve inches ; extent twenty -three and a half inches ; bill 

 one and a quarter inches. 



It should be borne in mind, in this connection and others, 

 that a bird does not change its dress as a snake does its skin, 

 but that while passing from one plumage to another (as in the 

 case of this bird's belly from black to white, and vice versa) vari- 

 ous combinations are produced. 



" Nearly cosmopolitan, but chiefly in the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere, breeding far north, and migrating south in winter ; in 

 America to the West Indies, Brazil, and New Granada" (A. O. U. 

 Check List). 



