WATER BIRDS. 



Family CHARADRIID^: Plovers. 



BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 



Squatarola helvetica {L.) CllV. 



Chars. Distinguished from all other Plovers by having a small 

 hind toe, no trace of which is seen in the rest of the species. 

 Plumage speckled, like that of the Golden Plover, without any 

 of the rings and bands of color which characterize the species of 

 ^gialites. Adult breeding plumage (rarely seen in the U. S.) : 

 Face and entire under parts, black ; upper parts, variegated 

 with black and white or ashy ; tail, barred with black and white ; 

 wing quills, dusky, with large white patches. Adult winter 

 plumage, and young : Under parts, white, more or less shaded 

 with gray ; the throat and breast speckled with dusky ; upper 

 parts speckled with blackish, white and yellowish ; rump, white, 

 with dark bars ; legs, dull bluish. Old birds changing show 

 every gradation between the plumages given. Length, ii.oo- 

 12.00; extent about 23.50; wing, 7.25; tail, 3.00; bill, 1. 00- 

 1.25 ; tarsus, 2.00 ; middle toe, 1.20. 



Passing from the Land Birds, we enter now upon the 



no less varied and scarcely less extensive series of those 



feathered creatures which are seldom found except by 



the water's edge, or which are as much at home in the 



limpid element as upon its fixed shores ; which, when 



not on the water itself, do not as a rule live in trees and 



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