GOLDEN PLOVER. 293 



and European birds, are pure white. Mr. Yarrell 

 states, that eastward he has traced it through 

 France and Italy to the shores of Africa, and that 

 the Zoological Society have specimens from Tre- 

 bizond. This range is probable. All the Asiatic 

 birds, with those of the Indian Islands and New 

 Holland, agree with the American species; and 

 Mr. Audubon, in his Appendix to the concluding 

 volume of his interesting " Ornithological Bio- 

 graphy," has also included the American Golden 

 Plover, under the title C. marmoratus, Wagler, 

 as found in the New World. In addition to the 

 common bird, as stated already, all the specimens 

 which have come under our own observation have 

 been the latter bird ; at the same time, we have 

 no reason to doubt Mr. Audubon's well known 

 accuracy. 



This beautiful Plover, in the full breeding dress, 

 has the space between the eyes and the bill, cheeks, 

 auriculars, throat, breast, belly, and vent, of a deep 

 velvetty-black ; the flanks and under tail-coverts 

 white, shaded with pale yellow ; the forehead and 

 streak above the eyes, nearly pure white ; the 

 ground colour of the crown, back, scapulars, and 

 long tertials, very deep clove-brown, with purplish 

 reflections of a paler shade upon the back of the 

 neck, and having each feather cut into with small 

 triangular spots of king's-yellow ; on the nape the 

 centres of the feathers only are dark, leaving the 

 whole margins yellow, which lightens or renders 

 more yellow the general tint of this part ; and, on 



