RING PLOVER. 5 



194. CHJRJDRIVS SEXIPJLXATUS, BONAPARTE. 



TSiyOJ. HIATICULA, WILSON. RING PLOVER. 



WILSON, PLATE LIX. FIG. III. 



A BIRD by this name has just been described, under the 

 supposition that it was the ring plover in its summer 

 dress ; but which, notwithstanding its great resemblance 

 to the present, I now suspect to be a different species. 

 Fearful of perpetuating error, and anxious to retract, 

 where this may inadvertently have been the case, I 

 shall submit to the consideration of the reader the 

 reasons on which my present suspicions are founded. 



The present species, or true ring plover, and also the 

 former, or light coloured bird, both arrive on the sea 

 coast of New Jersey late in April. The present kind 

 continues to be seen in flocks until late in May, when 

 they disappear, on their way farther north ; the light 

 coloured bird remains during the summer, forms its 

 nest in the sand, and generally produces two brood in 

 the season. Early in September the present species 

 returns in flocks, as before ; soon after this, the light 

 coloured kind go off to the south, but the other remain 

 a full month later. European writers inform us, that 

 the ring plover has a sharp twittering note ; and this 

 account agrees exactly with that of the present : the 

 light coloured species, on the contrary, has a peculiarly 

 soft and musical note, similar to the tone of a German 

 flute, which it utters while running along the sand, 

 with expanded tail and hanging wings, endeavouring 

 to decoy you from its nest. The present species is 

 never seen to breed here ; and, though I have opened 

 great numbers of them as late as the 20th of May, the 

 eggs which the females contained were never larger 

 than small bird shot ; while, at the same time, the light 

 coloured kind had every where begun to lay in the 

 little cavities which they had dug in the sand on the 

 beach. These facts being considered, it seems difficult 



