368 PIPING PLOVER. 



erate ; the tarsi are longer than tlie middle toe and reticulated ; the toes 

 scutellate, margined by a narrow squamulose membrane : the middle 

 toe is longest and connected to the outer, at least to the first joint, by • 

 membrane : even in the species that have the inner toe cleft there are 

 traces of the membrane, which is so much developed in the Semipal- 

 mated Ring-Plover : the nails are compressed, curved, and acute. The 

 wings are elongated, acute, and tuberculate : the first primary is longest, 

 and after the second they decrease rapidly, thus presenting a most useful 

 mark for discriminating between this and the kindred genus Vanellus, 

 which has obtuse wings, the third primary being the longest, and the 

 others decreasing gradually. The tail is more or less rounded, always 

 composed of twelve feathers, rounded or lanceolate. The plumage of 

 the under parts is soft, the feathers being numerous, wide, rather dense 

 in the centre, with the barbs rather loose, and well furnished with down 

 at base: the plumage of the upper parts is rather dense, and the 

 feathers more or less rounded at the tips : the scapularies are long, at the 

 tips attenuated and very flexible. In most of the species the males and 

 females are alike, the young somewhat different from them. They moult 

 generally twice in the year, when the colors of their plumage undergo 

 some changes. 



The Plovers are all more or less gregarious in disposition : their haunts 

 are either meadows, as the mottled Plovers, or the seashores, like the 

 Ring-Plovers : they have a very remarkable habit of stirring the soil 

 with their feet, to put in motion worms and aquatic insects, their exclu- 

 sive food. They are more nocturnal than diurnal. They lay in the 

 sand about four large eggs. The young very soon after they are hatched 

 follow the mother, and pick up the food which she with great care points 

 out to them. 



The Piping Plover is seven inches long, and fourteen in extent : the 

 bill is bright yellow slightly tinged with orange for half its length, 

 thence black : the eyelids are bright yellow and the irides dark brown. 

 The plumage above generally, with the mere interruption of the ring on 

 the neck, is of an extremely pale brownish or dusky, inclining strongly 

 to whitish ash : the front, part of the head between the bill and eyes, 

 and the whole inferior surface from the chin to the tip of the lower tail- 

 coverts, and including the under wing-coverts and long axillary feathers, 

 is pure white : the head and breast are ornamented, the former with a 

 black crescent, that runs transversely between the eyes and bounds the 

 white forehead on one side, and the ash-colored parts of the head on the 

 other ; the latter by a curved band round its sides, forming the ring or 

 half-collar round the neck, but narrow and almost interrupted before. 

 The wings are four and three-quarter inches long, and reach when 

 closed to the tip of the tail ; the wing-coverts are darker than the back 

 feathers, and are all edged with white : the larger coverts are broadly 



