AMERICAN GOLDEN" PLOVER 181 



A broad patch under the eye, extending back to the ears, and the 

 chin, are white; a spot in front of the eye and an indistinct band 

 above it, the hind neck and the throat are yellowish white, the hind 

 neck being mottled with black; a broad band from the lores to the 

 nape is pale yellow, mottled with black. The remaining under parts 

 are grayish white. 



In fresh juvenal plumage, on the breeding grounds, the crown and 

 all the upper parts are brownish black, the feathers tipped or heavily 

 notched with bright yellow, "light cadmium" to "buff-yellow," 

 brightest on the rump; the wing coverts are pale sepia, notched 

 paler yellow or white; the breast is pale drab, barred, spotted or 

 notched with pale dusky and dull yellow, " mustard yellow " to 

 " Naples yellow " ; the belly is white, partially barred with pale 

 dusky; and the tail feathers are sepia, indistinctly barred with 

 darker sepia and tipped with dull yellow. By the time that young 

 birds reach us on migration in September, the bright yellows of the 

 upper parts have faded considerably, and the duller yellow on the 

 breast has disappeared entirely. This plumage is not molted until 

 after the birds leave us ; late in the fall, November or later, a partial 

 molt of the body plumage produces the first winter plumage, which 

 can be distinguished from the adult only by the juvenal tail and 

 some retained scapulars and tertials. What happens the next spring 

 we have not the material to show. Most of the birds that we see here 

 in the spring are in fully adult nuptial plumage, but I have seen quite 

 a number of birds, some taken on their breeding grounds, that showed, 

 more or less, old, worn, winter plumage; these may be young birds 

 in their first nuptial plumage. 



The postnuptial molt of adults begins with the body molt in 

 August, the new pale drab and whitish feathers of the winter plum- 

 age appearing first in the black under parts; this molt continues 

 through September while the birds are migrating. But the primaries 

 are not molted until winter, November to February. In winter the 

 j)lumage of the under parts is very pale drab, shading off to almost 

 pure white on the chin and belly ; the adult tail is irregularly barred 

 with dusky and grayish or yellowish white; the feathers of the 

 mantle are brownish black, narrowly edged with yellow, not notched 

 or spotted as in spring. The prenuptial molt of the body plumage 

 begins in March and lasts until May in some individuals; many old 

 winter feathers are often found in breeding birds, especially in the 

 wing coverts, scapulars, tertials and back. The beautiful nuptial 

 plumage is too well known to need description here. 



Food. — The favorite feeding grounds of the goldeji plover are 

 rolling pasture lands where the grass is short or scanty, prairies, 



