482 THE BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 



range. It is believed that this bird was known to Herodotus, and that it 

 was held by the ancient Egyptians in reverence second only to that accorded 

 the Sacred Ibis (Ibis (cthiopica). 



There is only one record of this bird in Ohio, that reported by Dr. Kirt- 

 land in 1850, a pair having been seen "two years since near Fairport, Lake 

 County," and one of them taken. 



No. 218. 

 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 



A. O. U. No. 270 Squatarola squatarola (Linn.). 



Synonyms. BEETLE-HEAD; Ox-EYE. 



Description. Adult in summer: Above, broadly dusky or black varied by 

 white in spots and terminal edgings, the latter color predominating on top of head 

 and hind-neck and on wings ; primaries dusky brown with large basal areas and 

 portion of shaft (increasing inwardly) white; upper tail-coverts and tail white, 

 barred with black ; forehead, space over eye, and sides of neck, to or below breast, 

 white ; lining of wings, lower belly, thighs, and crissum white ; sides of head and 

 remaining under parts, including axillars, sooty black; bill and feet black. Adult 

 in winter: Without black below (except on axillars) white instead; fore-neck 

 and chest streaked and spotted with dusky ; dusky of upper parts lighter ; and 

 white replaced by pale gray. Immature : Similar to adult in winter, but head and 

 neck streaked and back spotted with yellowish-buff. Length 10.50-12.00 (266.7- 

 304.8) ; wing 7.50 (190.5) ; tail 3.00 (76.2) ; bill 1.18 (30.) ; tarsus 1.85 (47.). 



Recognition Marks. Killcleer size or larger ; black and white in broad de- 

 sign, and without distinct yellow above; below black (in summer) or nearly white 

 (in winter or young) ; axillarics black at any season. Similar to succeeding spe- 

 cies, but larger ; bill and head larger ; presence of hind toe distinctive. 



Nesting. Does not breed in Ohio. Nest, on the ground. -Eggs, 3 or 4, light 

 or dark buffy olive, heavily speckled and spotted with dark browns or blacks. Av. 

 size, 2.04 x 1.43 (51.8 x 36.3). 



General Range. Nearly cosmopolitan, but chiefly in the northern hemis- 

 phere, breeding far north and migrating south in winter ; in America to the West 

 Indies, Brazil, and Colombia. 



Range in Ohio. Rare migrant on the Lake Erie shore; casual elsewhere. 



IT is not to be wondered at, perhaps, that a bird so light of body and 

 so fleet of wing should choose to live the strenuous life at all seasons. In 

 summer the Plover is always within sound of the crunching ice-floe or the 

 screaming Gyrfalcon. In winter the frequent cannonading of South Ameri- 

 can revolutionists serves to redeem the monotony of tropical exisitence ; while 



