76 WATER BIRDS 
its wings in a peculiar butterfly fashion when alighting. 
It is not so commonly found in the interior as other 
members of its family, and probes in the sand of the 
beach for its food rather than in the salt meadows ; its 
favorite food is small snails, water-spiders, and crayfish. 
270. BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. — Squatarola. 
(Common names: Beetle-head ; Oxeye ; Whistling Field 
Plover; Bull-head Plover; Swiss Plover.) 
Famity : The Plovers. 
Length: 11.00. 
Adults in Summer : Sides of head and neck and under parts black ; lower 
belly and under tail-coverts white; upper parts mottled black and 
white ; tail white, barred with black. 
Adults in Winter: Upper parts brownish gray, mottled with lighter, 
and under parts white, streaked with gray. 
Young: Similar to winter adults, but spotted on upper parts with buff, 
Geographical Distribution: Nearly cosmopolitan. 
Breeding Range: Arctic regions. 
Breeding Season: July. 
Nest: A mere depression in the soil, lined with dry grass. 
Eggs: 4; light buffy olive, heavily marked with brown or black. Size 
2.04 X 1.48. 
Tue Black-bellied, or Beetle-head Plover is a com- 
mon migrant on the California coast. Each spring 
and fall flocks may be seen flying in lines or wedge- 
shaped ranks after the manner of geese, and their mellow 
three-noted whistle sounds clearly above the roar of the 
surf. These birds run along the beach at the edge of 
the water, snatching up the sea food left by the receding 
tide, and when the turn sets in they retreat to the higher 
sand banks to be out of the way of a wetting. The 
