THE KILL-DEER PLOVER. 415 
ing their peculiar whistle, and kill great numbers of them. 
I have known two sportsmen to bag sixty dozen in two days’ 
shooting; and instances are on record of still greater num- 
bers being secured. The flesh of this bird is very delicate 
and fine-flavored ; and the birds are in great demand in all 
our markets, bringing equally high prices with the favorite 
Woodcock. The Golden Plover feeds on grasshoppers, 
various insects, and berries, but is seldom found in the inte- 
rior of New England; the pastures, fields, sandy hills, and 
dry islands near the seacoast, being its favorite resorts. 
ALGIALITIS, Bore. 
AAgialitis, Bor, Isis (1822), 558. (Type Charadrius hiaticula, L.) 
Plumage more or less uniform, without spots; neck and head generally with 
dark bands; front of the legs with plates arranged vertically, of which there are 
two or three in a transverse series. 
This genus, as far as North America is concerned, is distinguished from Chara- 
drius by the generally lighter color and greater uniformity of the plumage, by the 
absence of continuous black on the belly, and by the presence of dusky bands on 
the neck or head; the size is smaller; the tarsi, in most species, have the front plates 
larger, and conspicuously different in this respect from the posterior ones. 
EGIALITIS VOCIFERUS. — Cassin. 
The Kill-deer Plover. 
Charadrius vociferus, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 253. Wils. Am. Orn., VIL 
(1813) 78. Nutt. Man., II. 22. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 191; V. 577. Hbne 
Syn., 222. Jb., Birds Am., V. (1842) 207. 
Aigialtes vociferus, Bonaparte. List (1838). 
DESCRIPTION. 
Wings long, reaching to the end of the tail, which is also rather long; head above 
and upper parts of body light-brown with a greenish tinge; rump and upper tail 
coverts rufous, lighter on the latter; front and lines over and under the eye white; 
another band of black in front above the white band; stripe from the base of the 
bill towards the occiput brownish-black; ring encircling the neck and wide band on 
the breast black; throat white, which color extends upwards around the neck; 
other under parts white; quills brownish-black with about half of their inner webs 
white, shorter primaries with a large spot of white on their outer webs, secondaries 
widely tipped or edged with white; tail feathers pale-rufous at base; the four mid- 
dle light olive-brown tipped with white, and with a wide subterminal band of black; 
lateral feathers widely tipped with white; entire upper plumage frequently edged 
