FAMILY CHARADRIIDAE 387 



Females, wing 115-127 (119.8), tail 52.5-61 (55.7), culmen 10.5- 

 13.5 (11.9), tarsus 21-23 (21.9) mm. 



Migrant from the north. Common along both Atlantic and Pacific 

 coasts : Isla Coiba ; Archipielago de las Perlas ( San Jose, Saboga, 

 Viveros, and Rey islands) ; Isla Escudo de Veraguas. A few non- 

 breeding birds are present during the period of northern summer. 



These plovers range the sand beaches, sometimes alone, but 

 usually in small groups of half a dozen to a dozen individuals. The 

 ocean front is a regular haunt, but on the larger rivers of the Pacific 

 slope, as on the Chiman and the Jaque, these plovers regularly come 

 inland to the head of tidewater where the period of low water ex- 

 poses open bars of sand and gravel on which they may feed. When 

 the tide is in they often take refuge on rocky islets or headlands. 

 At such times they may go back also among the mangroves to rest 

 on exposed roots. A favored place at high tide is on the offshore 

 rocks at Panama Viejo. At Changuinola, in Bocas del Toro, I have 

 seen them on the golf links, about small pools left by heavy rains. 



Some nonbreeding birds remain through June, during the period of 

 northern summer, but when flocks of fair size are recorded after 

 early July, probably they are early arrivals in the fall migration. 

 Large flocks may be encountered in late March and April when the 

 birds are on their way north. 



At Puerto Mensabe on the coast of Los Santos on March 26, 

 1948, two in full plumage, that I assumed to be males, called, sang, 

 and postured as they do on their northern breeding grounds. 



CHARADRIUS COLLARIS Vieillot: Collared Plover, Turillo 



Figure 66 



Charadrhis collaris Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., nouv. ed., vol. 27, Dec. 1818, 

 p. 135. (Paraguay.) 



Smallest of the plovers that have a black breast band ; bill black, 

 except for the extreme base of the mandible. 



Description. — Length, 130 to 145 mm. Adult (sexes alike), fore- 

 head, line through eye, including lower eyelid, and under surface, 

 except breast band, white; fore part of crown, line from eye to 

 bill, and breast band black; upper surface from center of crown to 

 upper tail coverts, including ear coverts, and lesser and middle wing 

 coverts, grayish brown, in most with faint tips of dull white to pale 

 cinnamon ; usually with a band of cinnamon brown between the 

 black and the gray of crown, and a mixture of the same color on 



