Birds of Pennsylvania. 



45 



Bull-head* Plovers were abundant in the Great Valley and in the 



vicinity of West Chester, where, in September, they came in flocks 



of hundreds and literally covered the fields where wheat had been 



sown. In those days the wheat was sown, as but few farmers had 



drills. Mr. J. states that he has often killed fiiteen or twenty at one 



shot, and, in company with his brother, has shot two hundred or 



more in one day. These birds would remain about two weeks, or 



until the wheat had sprouted. They subsisted almost exclusively on 



wheat. My informant states that prior to 1860, for at least fifteen 



years, these birds annually, in the fall, made these visits, and that he 



had always been told, when a boy, that "Bull-heads" were abundant 



every year. 



Food. 



Audubon furnishes the following information of this species : " While 

 searching for food on the sand or mud bars of the seashore they move 

 in a direct manner, often look sideways toward the ground, and pick 

 up the object of their search by a peculiar bending movement of the 

 body. They are frequently observed to pat the moist earth with their 

 feet to force worms from their burrows. In autumn they betake 

 themselves to the higher grounds, where berries as well as insects are 

 to be met with, and where they find abundance of grasshoppers." 



Genus ^GIALITIS. Boie. 

 273. ^gialitis vocifera (Linn.). 



Killdeer. 



Descriptiox. {rinfe 11.) 



Wings long, reaching to the end of the tail, which is also rather long ; head above 

 and upper parts of body light-brown with a greenish tinge ; rump and upper tail 

 coverts rufous, lighter on the latter ; front and lines over and under the eye white ; 

 another band of black in front above the white band ; stripe from the base of the 

 bill towards the occiput, l)roAvnish-black : ring encircling the neck and wide band 

 on the ))reast, black ; throat white, which color extends upwards around the neck ; 

 other under parts wliite ; quills brownish-black with about half of their inner webs 

 white, shorter primaries, Avith a large spot of white on their outer webs, secondaries 

 widely tipped or edged with white ; tail feathers pale-rufous at base ; the four mid- 

 dle light olive-l)rown tipped with wliite, and with a wide sn'oterminal band of black ; 

 lateral feathers widely tipped with white ; entire upper plumage frequently edged 

 and tipped with rufous ; very young have upper parts light-gray, with a longitudinal 

 band on the head and back black ; under parts white ; iris, dark brown. 



* The name Bull-head U ijiven to hoth the Golden and Blach-helUed Plovers. I suppose the birds 

 mentioned by my friend Mr. .Jacobs to have been Golden Plovers (CliaradrUin dominievist. 



