170 CHARADRIID^. : PLOVERS. 



Spotted Sandpiper are those which, of all the waders, 

 are oftenest found — it is merely a slight depression of 

 ground, either in a bit of shingle by the water's edge, 

 or in some grassy meadow or marshy spot not far from 

 open water. The eggs are usually four in number, very 

 broad at one end and pointed at the other, measuring 

 1.50 to 1.60 long by about i.io broad. The ground is 

 a creamy clay-color, sometimes tending to brownish 

 but thickly blotched, spotted and scratched with dark 

 or blackish brown. The markings are usually of small 

 size, tending to speckles and scratches rather than full 

 spots, comparatively few specimens being boldly 

 blotched at the longer end, where the markings tend to 

 aggregation, though they are oftenest numerously dis- 

 tributed over the whole surface. They are usually laid 

 in May ; and not improbably in some cases a second set 

 is deposited later in the season. 



WILSON'S PLOVER. 



^GIALITES WILSONIUS {Ovd) CuSS. 



Chars. Pale ashy-brown, merging into fulvous on the nape ; a 

 black bar on the crown, and a broad black pectoral belt, grayish- 

 brown in the female and young ; no bright ring round eye; legs, 

 flesh-colored ; bill, black, extremely large and stout, nearly as 

 long as the head. Length, 7.00-8.00 ; extent, 15.25 ; wing, 4.50- 

 5.00 ; tail, 2.00, nearly square ; bill, 0.80 ; tarsus, 1.20. 



Unlike any of the foregoing Plovers, Wilson's is a 

 southern species, of restricted range in the United 

 States, and probably confined to the sea coast. So 

 rarely does it proceed northward beyond the coast of 



