CHAR A DRIUS SEMI PA LMA TUS. 



YOUNG SEMIPALMATED PLOVER* 



[Plate XXV. Fig. 4.] 



Charadrius semipalmaius, Nob. Obs. Nom. Wils. Sp. 219. Id. Cat. and Syn. Birds 

 U. S. Sp. 216. Id. Speech, comp. sp. Philad. Caup, his, xii., 1825, p. 1375, t. 

 14 (the head and foot). Wagler, Sijst. Av. i., Charadrius, Sp. 23. 



The credit of first pointing out the curious though obscure character 

 which distinguishes the present bird from its very near relative the Ch. 

 hiaticula of Europe, is due to Mr. Ord, and after verifying it in all our 

 American specimens, we feel satisfied that the true hiaticula does not 

 inhabit this continent, and those authors who have recorded it as Ameri- 

 can, must have mistaken the present species for it : we might therefore 

 have swelled our limited list of synonymes with quotations of all their 

 American specimens described under this name. The species was first 

 established in our " Observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson," and 

 in our " Synopsis," and nearly at the same time by Mr. Caup also, on 

 a single specimen in the Museum of Darmstadt, whose origin was doubt- 

 ful, but the real one suspected. By a fortunate coincidence, Mr. Caup 

 and myself were led to select the same appropriate name for our bird, 

 which is the less extraordinary, as being suggested by so material an 

 anomaly in the characters ; Natural History conducting us in this 

 instance to the result of one of the most exact sciences. 



The distinctions between the three European species of Ring-Plovers 

 having been until lately but little understood, it is not to be wondered 

 at if those inhabiting these states were not at once well established : 

 North America counts also three, independently of the Kildeer, and 

 several others not yet properly determined inhabit other parts of the 

 world. 



Being now regarded as a new and very distinct species, we have not 

 hesitated to reproduce of its natural size a bird that Wilson has already 

 represented reduced one-half; but his figure of the adult being remark- 

 ably good, we have thought it best to give the young, with the subjoined 

 description, referring the reader for other particulars to the accurate 

 account of our predecessor. 



The Young Semipalmated Plover is seven inches long, and fourteen 

 in extent : the bill is almost entirely black, being destitute of orange, 



* See Wilson's Ameriean Ornithology, Ring-Plover, Charadrius [Tringa, by a 

 typografihical error) hiaticula, vol. ii., p. 357 (Ord's ed. p. 69), pi. 59, fig. 3, for 

 the adult in spring dress, and the history. 



(376) 



