166 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



^GIALITIS NIVOSA Cass. 

 124. Snowy Plover, (278) 



Male in breeding rZrev.s; — Above, pale ashy-gra}', little darker than in meloda; 

 top of head with a fulvous tinge ; a broad black coronal bar from eye to eye ; a 

 narrower black post-ocular stripe, tending to meet its fellow on the nape, and 

 thus encircle the fulvous area ; a broad black patch on each side of the breast ; 

 no sign of its completion above or below ; no complete black loral stripe, but 

 indication of such in a small dark patch on either side of base of upper man- 

 dible; forehead, continuous with line over the eye, sides of head, excepting the 

 black post-ocular stripe, and whole under parts, excepting the black lateral 

 breast patches, snowy white ; no white ring complete around back of neck ; 

 primaries, blackish, especially at bases and ends, the intei'mediate extent 

 fuscous; shaft of first, white, of others, white for a space; nearly all the 

 primaries bleaching toward bases of inner webs, but only some of the inner ones 

 with a white area on outer webs ; primary coverts like the primaries, but white- 

 tipped ; greater coverts like the back, but white-tipped ; secondaries, dark 

 brown, bleaching internally and basally in increasiiig extent from without 

 inwards, their shafts white along their respective white portions; tertiaries, 

 like back ; several intermediate tail feathers like back, darkening toward ends; 

 two or three lateral pairs entirely white; all the feathers more pointed than 

 usual; bill, slender and acute, black; legs, black. Length, 6.50 to 7.00; extent, 

 13.50 to 14.00; wing, 4.00 to 4.25; tail, 2.00 or less. 



Hab. — Western Province of North America ; in winter, both coasts of 

 Central America and western South America to Chili. 



Eggs, three, placed among the shingle on the beach, pale Iniff or clay color, 

 finely marked with blackish-brown spots. 



The Snowy Plover is a western bird very seldom seen east of the 

 Rocky Mountains, and would not have been mentioned here, but for 

 the following notice of it which appears in the Auk for October, 

 1885. It is contributed by E. E. Thompson, of Toronto. "A speci- 

 men of this bird was shot here by Mr. J. Forman, May, 1880, and 

 is now in the rooms of the Toronto Gun Club. It was at the time 

 in company with some Piping Plovers. This specimen answers in 

 general to the description in ' Coues' Key ' and fully in regard to 

 the bill ; it differs in being much lighter in plumage. I had no 

 opportunity to make measurements, but in the same case were meloda 

 and seniipabnata, and comparison with these makes me almost certain 

 that it is nivosa. The bill is noticeably long, black and slender. I 

 never met the bird before, and have no material to aid me in settling 

 the point." 



If Mr. Thompson has correctly identified the specimen described, 

 it can only be regarded as a casual straggler from the far west which 

 may not be seen here again. 



