362 GOLDEN PLOVER. 



twelve being seen together. Tliey are then more serene and silent, as 

 well as difficult to be approached. 



The Kildeer is ten inches long, and twenty inches in extent ; the bill 

 is black ; frontlet, chin, and ring round the neck, white ; fore part of 

 the crown, and auriculars from the bill backwards, blackish olive; eye- 

 lids bright scarlet ; eye very large, and of a full black ; from the centre 

 of the eye backwards a stripe of white ; round the lower part of the 

 neck is a broad band of black ; below that a band of white, succeeded 

 by another rounding band or crescent of black ; rest of the lower parts 

 pure white ; crown and hind-head light olive brown ; back, scapulars, 

 and wing-coverts, olive brown, skirted with brownish yellow ; primary 

 quills black, streaked across the middle with white ; bastard wing tipped 

 with white ; greater coverts broadly tipped with white ; rump and tail- 

 coverts orange ; tail tapering, dull orange, crossed near the end with a 

 broad bar of black, and tipped with orange, the two middle feathers 

 near an inch longer than the adjoining ones ; legs and feet a pale light 

 clay color. The tertials, as usual in this tribe, are very long, reaching 

 nearly to the tips of the primaries ; exterior toe joined by a membrane 

 to the middle one, as far as the first joint. 



Species V. CHARADRIUS PLVVIALIS, 



GOLDEN PLOVER. 



[Plate LIX. Fig. 6.] 



Arci. Zool. p. 493, No. 399. — Bewick, i., 322. — Le Pluvier dor£. Buff, tiii., 81. — 



PI. Eld. 90^.* 



This beautiful species visits the seacoast of New York and New 

 Jersey in spring and autumn ; but does not, as far as I can discover, 

 breed in any part of the United States. They are most frequently met 

 with in the months of September and October ; soon after which they 

 disappear. The young birds of the great Black-bellied Plover are some- 

 times mistaken for this species. Hence the reason why Mr. Pennant 



* We add the following synonymes from Prince Musignano's "Observations:" — 

 Charadrius pluvialis, Linn. Gmel. Lath, winter dress. Temm. Vieill. — Chara- 

 drius apricarius, Linn. Gmel. Lath, summer dress, (not of Wilson, which is a four- 

 toed bird, VaiieUus helveticus.) — Pluvialis aurea, Briss. winter dress. — Pluvialis 

 aurea minor, Briss. winter dress. — -Pluvialis dominicensis aurea, Briss. winter dress. 

 ■ — Pluvialis aurea Freti Hudsonis, Briss. summer dress. — Le Pluvier d'or, Buff. 

 PI. Eiil. 904, winter dress. 



I 



