SLENDER-BILLED PLOVER _ 189 
in search of food like a Tringa. Its only language 
is a low clicking note uttered when taking wing. 
Some individuals remain to breed as far north as 
the pampas of Buenos Ayres. Mr. Gibson says the 
nest is always placed near the water, and is a slight 
scrape in the ground lined with dry grass. The eggs 
are three in number, have black spots on an olive 
ground, and in shape resemble Lapwings’ eggs. 
Durnford also found it breeding in the Chupat 
Valley in September 1877. 
There is a second species of Ringed Plover (Azara’s 
Ringed Plover, 4. collaris) which ranges over the 
whole of South America and was occasionally seen 
by me on migration, on the pampas. 
SLENDER-BILLED PLOVER 
Oreophilus ruficollis 
Above grey, varied with yellowish brown and striped with black on 
the back and wing-coverts ; front and superciliaries yellowish brown ; 
stripe through the eye blackish; wings blackish with white shafts, 
their under surface white; tail grey, with a black subterminal bar on 
the lateral feathers; beneath grey; throat rusty reddish; below the 
breast a black band or patch; bill dark, feet red; length 10, wing 
6.5 inches. 
THIS pretty and singular Plover, with a bill like a 
Sandpiper, inhabits South Patagonia and the Falk- 
lands. In the autumn it migrates north, and during 
the cold season is found sparsely distributed through- 
out the Argentine States, and passes into Bolivia and 
Peru. On the pampas it is most abundant in April, 
