219. 
592. 
220. 
604 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMICOLA. 
bluish; toes blackish. U. S., chiefly west of the R. Mts.; Utah; Cala. coast, breeding and 
wintering; also, coast of Texas. A specimen ( ¢, Corpus Christi, Texas, June 24, Sennett) 
though in midsummer plumage, has no fulvous on head ; no trace of loral mark; the coronal 
bar, post-ocular stripe, and lateral pectoral blotch dark brown, not black. Eggs 3; tone and 
style of coloration about as in wilsonius; size as in melodus, but markings more numerous and 
scratchy ; 1.200.90. (Probably specifically distinct from 4. cantianus.) 
PODASO'CYS. (The Homerie epithet of Achilles, wodas kis, podas okus, swift as to his 
feet.) MounrTain Piover. In general, characters of Avgialites ; but no black belt or 
patches on neck or breast; a coronal and loral black bar. Size large. Tail short, half the 
wing, square. Legs very long; tibiee nude for a distance } the length of tarsus. Latter 
more than half as long again as middle toe and claw. Toes very short, the lateral of unequal 
lengths. Tarsus and tibia entirely reticulate. Sexes alike. One species. 
P. monta/nus. (Lat. montanus, of mountains. Badly named: it is a prairie bird.) 
Prarie Puover. ‘ Mountain” Prover. ¢ Q, in summer: Upper parts uniform 
grayish-brown; in most breeding individuals the shade is pure, but in many eases the feathers 
are skirted with tawny or ochrey. Under parts entirely white (no black belt or patches); but 
the breast often shaded across with diffuse fulvous or gray. A sharp black loral line from bill 
to eye, cutting off the white forehead and superciliary line from the white of other parts. A 
coronal black bar across the sinciput, varying in width from a mere line to a band nearly half 
the length of crown in width. Quills blackish, the shaft of the first white, of the others white 
for a space ; some of the inner primaries with white spaces toward the bases of the outer webs, 
and the secondaries a little pale on their inner webs. ‘Tertiaries and greater coverts like back, 
the latter white-tipped. Tail-feathers like back, blackening toward ends, the outermost pale 
throughout ; all tipped with whitish. Bill black, slender ; legs pale; the toesdarker. Length 
9.50; extent 18.00; wing 5.50-6.00; tail 2.50-3.00; bill 0.90-1.00; tibize bare over ().50; 
tarsus 1.67; middle toe and claw 0.90-1.00. The full breeding dress has not before been fairly 
described. @ 9, in winter: No black coronal or loral stripe; otherwise, generally as in 
summer; but the general plumage more rusty, with more decided wash of color on the breast. 
Young: As last said; whole upper parts rusty from extensive edgings of all the feathers ; sides 
of head and neck similarly suffused with tawny. The ground-color of the upper parts is also 
darker than that of the adults. Chick in down: Forehead, sides of head and under parts 
white, with sulphury-yellow tinge. Crown, back and tibize sulphury or tawny-yellow, closely 
and evenly mottled with black. Unmarked line over eye; black ear-spot. Bill light at 
extreme base below, and at the point. Livid patch of naked skin on neck. An interesting, 
isolated species, plentifully and generally distributed in western U. S., Plains to the Pacific; 
N. to 49° at least. I have shot it in Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico (June), 
Arizona, Montana (49°, June), California coast (November), ete. It is not Hudromias, 
and sufficiently unlike Agialites. It inhabits the most sterile prairie as well as better watered 
regions, quite independently of water, and is not in the least aquatic ; even on the Cala. coast 
it haunts the plain, never the marsh, mud-flat, or beach. Feeds chiefly upon insects, especially 
grasshoppers. and is generally seen in loose straggling companies of small extent. Nest any- 
where on the bare prairie; eggs 3-4; 1.40 to 1.50 long, by 1.10 broad, less pointed than 
plovers’ eggs usually are, olive-drab with a brown shade, profusely dotted all over, but espe- 
cially at the larger end, with blackish, dark brown and neutral tint ; the markings all mere dots 
and points, the largest scarcely exceeding a pin’s head. June, July. 
VANEL'LUS. (Lat. vanellus or vannellus, diminutive of vannus, a fan.) LAPwInes. Bill 
slender, shorter than head, perfectly pluvialine. Legs long ; tibia much denuded below ; tarsus 
greatly longer than middle toe and claw. A web between bases of middle and outer toes ; inner 
toe cleft te the base. A small hind toe. Wings very long, folding to end of the long square 
tail, but rounded, 2d 5th primaries subequal and longest, Ist about equal to 7th; primaries 
