^GIALITES SEMIPALMATUS : RING PLOVER. 1/3 



SEMIPALMATED RING PLOVER: RING-NECK. 



^GIALITES SEMIPALMATUS iBp) Cab. 



Chars. Dark ashy-brown, with an olivaceous shade ; very broad 

 coronal and pectoral black bars, in the adult of both sexes, that 

 on the breast grayish-brown in the young, but still evident; 

 edges of eyelids bright orange ; bill moderately short and stout ; 

 orange or yellow, black-tipped; legs yellowish; toes conspicu- 

 ously semipalmate. Length, about 7.00 ; extent, 14.00 ; wjng, 

 4.50; tail about one-half as long as the wings, rounded ; bill, 

 0.50; tarsus, 1. 00. 



Two species of " Ring-necks " are abundant on the 

 New England beaches, in flocks usually, mixing indis- 

 criminately with the various kinds of Sandpipers. These 

 two are the Semipalmated and the Piping — both of 

 whose trim and agile forms are mirrored in the glassy 

 surface of the wet sand as they nimbly follow the re- 

 treating wave to pick up the tiny creatures that the sea 

 has cast at their feet for food, or still more swiftly speed 

 back from the incoming breaker which would engulf 

 them. It is hard to say which of the two is the com- 

 moner during the migration. In the breeding season 

 the Semipalmated will scarcely be seen, for most of the 

 individuals which migrate along the Atlantic coast pro- 

 ceed beyond our limits before stopping to nest — to 

 Labrador, the shores of which are a favorite breeding 

 place, and even still further north. Some, however, are 

 said to linger through the summer with us ; Mr. Samuels 

 speaks of a pair nesting on Muskeget Island, off the coast 

 of Massachusetts, and many other pairs are content with 

 the sinuosities of the Maine coast. The arrival of the 

 Ring-necks in spring is somewhat in advance of the 



