SHORE BIRDS OF NORTH AMEUICA. 



73 



SUBGENUS CHARADRIUS LINN. 



CHARADRIUS DOHINICUS Mull. 



American Golden Plover. Green Plover. 



Summer plumaye : Back and upper parts, smoky black ; feathers marked and edged with 

 yellow and brown; sides of the breast, whitish; rest of under parts, throat, and sides of the 

 head, including eye, black; forehead, whitish, a white stripe extending backwards over the 

 eye; down the sides of the neck; bill, black: axillars, gray. 



Winter plumaye: Upper parts, brownish, feathers marked with dull tawny yellow or buff; 

 under parts are dilll white, streaked with ashy brown or gray on the breast and sides. 



Length. 10.25; wing, 7; tarsus, 1.55; bill, .1)2. 



This species may always be distinguished in any plumage from the Black- 

 breast Plover by the gray axillars and the absence of the 

 small rudimentary hind toe. 



It ranges from the arctic regions where it breeds to South 

 America, being common on the coast during migration. It was 

 at one time abundant in New England in the early fall, but its 

 numbers have decreased greatly within the past few years. 

 While it prefers the hills and fields, it also frequents the 

 marshes and occasionally the sand flats. The eggs are buff 

 colored or brownish white, mottled and marked with chocolate 

 brown. 



The European Lapwing, Vanellus vaneUus (Linn.), has once been recorded 

 from Long Island (Dutcher, Auk III., 1886, p. 438). 



