No. 55.] 



BIRD NAMES. 



189 



Adult, and young, in fall and winter. Not now " black- 

 bellied," but a "gray" plover; without the positive contrasts just 

 described ; clothed instead with Quaker-like simplicity. Upper 

 parts with neck and portions of breast finely streaked and 

 speckled with grayish brown and white ; the upper parts some- 

 times washed here and there with faint yellow. Remaining 

 under parts white. Bill and legs less black, or grayish in tone. 



No. 56. Fall or Whiter Plumage. 



Measurements about as follows : length eleven and a quarter 

 to twelve inches ; extent twenty-three and a half inches ; bill 

 one and a quarter inches. 



It should be borne in mind, in this connection and others, 

 that a bird does not change its dress as a snake does its skin, 

 but that while passing from one plumage to another (as in the 

 case of this bird's belly from black to white, and vice versa) vari- 

 ous combinations are produced. 



" Nearly cosmopolitan, but chiefly in the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere, breeding far north, and migrating south in winter ; in 

 America to the West Indies, Brazil, and New Granada " (A. O. U. 

 Check List). 



