' ' ' MGIALITIS M'lLSONWS. 



Young. Similar to the adult female, but much moi-e reddish, especially on band across breast. Iris, browa, bill, 

 black, and feet, yellow, in all stages. ^ 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Known from all other Plovers havingasiosflerinir around neck, by the comparatively large size of tliebill wliicli is not 

 only thick hut is nearly as long as the head. Distributed in summer along the Eastern coast as far north as New Jersey. 

 Winters on tlie Florida Keys and Bahamas. 



DIMENSIONS. 

 Average measurements of specimens from Florida. Length, 7'85; stretch, 1500; wing, 575; tail, I'To; bill, '88; tar- 

 sus, T 12. Longe-t .specimen, 8-15; greatest extent of wing, 16-00; longest wing, 5'90; tail, 2'00; bi;l, lO'i; tiir.sus, Tl'S^ 

 Shortest specimen, 7 50; smallest extentof wing, 14'00; shorte-st wing, I'ttS; tail, r45; bill, '70; tarsus, 105. 



DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 

 Eyijs, placed on the ground in a slight depression of the soil, on a few bits of shells, etc.; thee in n,-.iubcr, p if .■ 

 shape, creamy in color, finely and thickly lined and spotted with black, but there are more lines tlitin -.p ts. Dim, n 

 from lOOx 1-35 to 105xl-40. 



HABITS. 



The northern end of Key West i.s comparatively b;irren as the Ihue rock w'lu^h fiiv;:-. 

 the foundation of the entire key, has here only a scant supply of so'.l over i' and, oo;. 

 quently, there is hut very little vegetation. Between this section and the suulhci!;, 

 more fertile, end of the key, is a low-lying tract which can be flooded with sea water ; ti 

 which, in fact, some years ago, formed, in a great measure, na'.ural .-alt pmds, h.\[ ilic; 

 then only covered a limited surface. Now, however, square, .shallow ))nsins have been d,;;g 

 over a greater extent, and u.sed for the manufacture of salt, the water beiui; let into them 

 and allowed to evaporate in the sun, leaving the salt. These square basins are separated 

 from one another by dykes along which one can walk and where various spo:;ios of shore b;r.':: 

 alight. Among t'aein arc large quantities of Plovers of the geiuis of v^liich I am wri:hii;-, 

 and I have, with a single discharge of my gun, killed three species, viz., Wilson's, Piping, 

 and Ringaock; a.i 1 the day when I took the first and only .specimen of the Mountain Plover 

 ever shot east on the Mi-ssissippi, I secured, in all, six species of the genus jEgialitis in 

 about an hour, a feat which I will venture to say, will sehlom be repeated. 



While here, I paid consiilerable attention to the habits of Wilson's Plover, then in 

 the winter dress, but did not observe that they differed strikingly from other small Plov- 

 ers, excepting that, perhaps, the flight is a little heavier; but when I found them breeding'^ 

 on Indian River, a few years hiter, I f lund that they had some characderistic habits. 



E.irly in May I observed the m;iles in pursuit of the females and alighting beside them, 

 at the sun: time uttering a series of peculiar, sharp, abruptly given whislles. Confident 

 that they were luveding, a few days later I visited the beach ridge, jtist north of Cape Ca- 

 naveral, to l.)ok for the eggs, but although there were several pairs of birds eircling about, 

 it was not until 1 happened to see a female run from the nest, that I chanced to discover her 

 three ci^g^. These wore placed in a, small hollow scratched in the s;ind, m\ some bits of 

 shell and fish bones gathered by the birds, but in a little open space, surrounded by sea 

 purslane, a low plant which grows plentifully about; and all that I afterward found, were 

 placed in a similar situation. The birds ran nimbly about or circled overhead, so that it 

 was impossible to decide just where a nest was situated, and the males were constantly 



