JAN., 1909. BIRDS OF ILLINOIS AND WISCONSIN CORY. 425 



Family CHARADRIID^. Plovers. 



Most Plovers are gregarious. They vary considerably in their 

 habits in different species ; some prefer the beaches and marshes while 

 others frequent the fields and plains. Of the hundred or more known 

 species, 15 occur in North America and 9 in the eastern United States. 

 Their flesh is excellent, especially in the fall, when they are usually 

 very fat. 



Black-bellied Plover (winter). Piping Plover. Semipalmated Plover. 



Genus SQUATAROLA Cuvier. 

 134. Squatarola squatarola (LINN.). 

 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 



Charadrius squatarola (Linn.), A. O. U. Check List, 1895, p. 99. 



Local names: Beetle-head. Black-breast. 



Distr.: Nearly cosmopolitan, chiefly in northern hemisphere; 

 breeds in the far north; south in winter to the West Indies, Brazil, 

 and Colombia. 



Adult male in summer: Upper parts, smoky black; feathers, 

 edged with dull white; breast and most of belly, black in highest 



