294 GOLDEN PLOVLit. 



the long tertials, the yellow runs round, tipping tne 

 extremity of each feather ; on the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts, they almost, and in some instances 

 do, cross the feather, assuming the form of diago- 

 nal bars ; the quills are clove-brown, with white 

 shafts ; the axillary feathers pure white ;* tail hair- 

 brown, the tint becoming paler towards the outside, 

 and cut into with triangular markings, which al- 

 most meet at the shaft. In the female the black 

 is not so intense, and is partially mixed with white. 

 In the winter dress, the upper parts of the plumage 

 are nearly similar to that of summer, the yellow 

 tint spreading more uniformly over the cheeks and 

 sides of the neck ; beneath, the throat, vent, and 

 under tail-coverts, are white, but the throat, breast, 

 belly, and vent, are a tint of ash-grey, or greyish 

 wood-brown, each feather having a darker centre, 

 and the whole tinted over with king's or Indian 

 yellow ; the bill black ; legs dark grey. The inter- 

 mediate states of plumage in which they are met 

 with in autumn, are often very beautiful, the under 

 parts being marbled with black, white, and pale 

 king's yellow, which blend softly together. Total 

 length from ten and a-half to eleven inches. The 

 true S. Virginianus is under these dimensions ; but 

 we possess specimens, said to be from America, in 

 every way agreeing with the latter bird, having 

 the hair-brown, instead of the pure white axillary 

 feathers, which are fully eleven inches in length. 



* The axillary feathers in C. pluvialis are pure white , in 

 S. Virginianus^ hair-brown ; and in S. cinerea, black. 



