Izj.A Mackay oti the Black-bellied Plover. [April 



pattern so distinctive of the adult male. The young birds, com- 

 monly called Beetle-heads, Chuckle-heads, or Bull-heads, have 

 the entire upper parts brow^nish gray-black covered with irregu- 

 lar spots of white and pale yellow, which last color varies in 

 different specimens; under parts white; the fore neck and breast 

 dull white with longitudinal, short, gray lines ; axillars dusky 

 brown to black. I have at times shot large specimens of young 

 American Golden Plover( C. dominicus) — Pale-bellies as they 

 are called — which quite closely resembled small specimens of 

 young Black-bellied Plover (C. sqiiatarola), or Beetle-head, but 

 the duskv or l)lackish axillars and the presence of a hind toe in 

 the latter will always distinguish them from the former. 



It is stated, or at least implied, in most ornithological works 

 tliat the plumnge of the adult female is the same as the male's ; it 

 will be noticed that I have described it differently. I now desire 

 to call attention to the universal statement current in the literature 

 of the subject that the adults assume what is designated as the 

 winter plumage, that is, gray above and white underneath, simi- 

 lar to the plumage of the young birds. I cannot but believe that 

 such statement is an error of long standing, it being my convic- 

 tion that such gray and white plumage is confined exclusively to 

 the younger birds, and is retained by them in varying stages up 

 to three or four years of age, or in other words until such time 

 when they change it (never to reappear in it) for that which is 

 known as full spring plumage. Birds with light-colored breasts 

 without any, or with very few, black feathers, are seen to a greater 

 or less extent every spring. I have yet to see an old bird 

 from any locality in any season, in the gray and white plumage. 

 Lest I may be misinterpreted, permit me to add that as these 

 birds do not, in my opinion, reach the height of their plumage 

 until they are three or four years old, my remarks apply only to 

 birds of that age or over. Mr. George A. Tapley of Revere, 

 Mass., who is a close observer and has probably shot as many of 

 these birds as any one in Massachusetts, and whose shooting 

 experience extends over a period of about fifty years, informs 

 me that he has shot the old birds in full plumage on Cape Cod, 

 Mass., on July 28, 29 and 30. He says he never saw an old bird 

 in the gray and white plumage, but has shot old and young birds 

 together. Mr. Charles G. Kendall, also a sportsman and a close 

 observer, has passed the last twenty-five winters in South Caro- 



