FAMILY CHARADRIID^ PLOVERS. 



GENUS CHARADRIUS LINN^US. 



SUBGENUS SQUATAROLA CUVIER. 



CHARADRIUS SQUATAROLA (LiNN.). 



119. Black-bellied Plover. (270) 



Adult in breeding season: Rarely seen in the United States; face and entire 

 under parts, black ; upper parts, variegated with black and white, or ashy ; 

 tail, barred with black and white; quills, dusky with large white patches. 

 Adidtx at other times and young: Below, white, more or less shaded with gray ; 

 the throat and breast, more or less speckled with dusky; above, blackish, 

 speckled with white or yellowish ; the rump, white, with dark bars ; legs, dull 

 bluish. Old birds changing show every grade, from a few isolated feathers on 

 the under parts to numerous large black patches. Length, 11-12; wing, 7 or 

 more; tail, 3; bill, 1-1^; tarsus, 2; middle toe and claw, 1^; hind toe, hardly |. 



HAB. Nearly cosmopolitan, but chiefly in the northern hemisphere, breed- 

 ing far north, and migrating south in winter, in America, to the West Indies, 

 Brazil and New Grenada. 



Nest, a hollow in the ground, slightly lined with grass. 



Eggs, four, dark gray color, blotched or spotted with brownish -black. 

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