190 BIRD NAMES. [No. 55. 



BLACK -BELLIED PLOVER: SWISS PLOVER: WHISTLING 

 PLOVER i^see jS^o. 56) : OX-EYE (given also to those very com- 

 mon and very small sandpipers, Tringa mimdiUa and Ereunetes 

 pusillus, better known as " peeps ") : SWISS SANDPIPER and 

 GRAY SANDPIPER of Pennant, and GRAY LAPWING of Swain- 

 son and Eichardson. AVilson writes : " Called ])y many gunners 

 along the coast the BLACK-BELLIED KILLDEER;" and again: 

 " This bird is known in some parts of the country by the 

 name of the large whistling field plover. It generally makes its 

 first appearance in Pennsylvania late in April ; frequents the 

 countries towards the mountains ; seems particularly attached 

 to newly ploughed fields, where it forms its nest." Audubon 

 speaks of its breeding " in the mountainous parts of Maryland, 

 Pennsvlvania, and Connecticut," and of finding its nests " in 

 the same localities as those of Totanus lartramius^^ (now Bar- 

 tramia longicaucla\ and he adds that it is known " in Penn- 

 sylvania by the name of Avhistling field plover." Nuttall also 

 calls it "large whistling field plover," and speaks of its being 

 " known to breed from the open grounds of Pennsylvania to the 

 very extremity of the Arctic regions ;" and Dr. Lewis, in his 

 American Sportsman, tells of its returning from the South early 

 in May, and soon after retiring to the "■ high upland districts to 

 breed," and of its being known " at this time more particularly 

 as the old field -plover or whistling plover," and he adds: "A 

 most capital manoeuvre, and one adopted by some of our sport- 

 ing friends in the country, is to approach them in a careless man- 

 ner, either in an old wagon or cart or on horseback, as they 

 seldom take alarm at a horse or a vehicle of any description." 

 Now No. 55 does not breed in the United States, and "VYilson 

 and the rest got it sadly mixed up with the Bartramian Sand- 

 piper, Xo. 50 ; and Dr. Lewis's account of the manner in which 

 his birds were pursued is plainly a description of a venerable 

 trick still practised on " field plover " No. 50. 



I have found neither this bird (No. 55) nor the following 

 plover (No. 56), sufficiently well known or common enough along 

 the Maine coast from Eastport to Ash Point to have any well- 

 established names. "VTith the exception of a few individuals who 



