358 RING PLOVER. 



sand, on the beach. These facts being considered, it seems difficult to 

 reconcile such difference of habit in one and the same bird. The Ring 

 Plover IS common in England, and agrees exactly with the one before 

 us ; but the light colored species, as far as I can learn, is not found in 

 Britain ; specimens of it have indeed been taken to that country, where 

 the most judicious of their ornithologists have concluded it to be still the 

 Ring Plover, but to have changed from the effect of climate. Mr. 

 Pennant, in speaking of the true Ring Plover, makes the following 

 remarks : " Almost all which I have seen from the northern parts of 

 North America have had the black marks extremely faint, and almost 

 lost. The climate had almost destroyed the specific marks ; yet in the 

 bill and habit preserved sufficient to make the kind very easily ascer- 

 tained." These traits agree exactly with the light colored species 

 described in our fifth volume. But this excellent naturalist was perhaps 

 not aware that we have the true Ring Plover here in spring and autumn, 

 agreeing in every respect with that of Britain, and at least in equal 

 numbers ; why, therefore, has not the climate equally affected the pre- 

 sent and the former sort, if both are the same species ? These incon- 

 sistencies cannot be reconciled but by supposing each to be a distinct 

 species, which, though approaching extremely near to each other, in 

 external appearance, have each their peculiar notes, color, and places 

 of breeding. 



The Ring Plover is seven inches long, and fourteen inches in extent ; 

 bill short, orange colored, tipped with black, front and chin white, 

 encircling the neck ; upper part of the breast black ; rest of the lower 

 parts pure white ; fore part of the crown black ; band from the upper 

 mandible, covering the auriculars, also black ; back, scapulars, and 

 wing-coverts, of a brownish ash color ; wing quills dusky black, marked 

 with an oval spot of white about the middle of each ; tail olive, deepen- 

 ing into black, and tipped with white ; legs dull yellow ; eye dark hazel, 

 eyelids yellow. 



This bird is said to make no nest, but to lay four eggs, of a pale ash 

 color, spotted with black, which she deposits on the ground.* The eggs 

 of the light colored species, formerly described, are of a pale cream 

 color, marked with small round dots of black, as if done with a pen. 



The Ring Plover, according to Pennant, inhabits America, down to 

 Jamaica and the Brazils.. Is found in summer in Greenland ; migrates 

 thence in autumn. Is common in every part of Russia and Siberia. 

 Was found by the navigators as low as Owyhee, one of the Sandwich 

 Islands, and as light colored as those of the highest latitudes. f 



* Bewick. t Arct. Zool. p. 485. 



