74 CHARADRIUS RUBIDUS. 



October, so that, perhaps, the gray maybe their winter, 

 and the spotted their summer dress. 



I have also met with many specimen- of this bird, 

 not only thickly speckled with white and black above, 

 but also on the neck, and strongly tinned on both with 

 ferruginous, in which dress it has been mi>tak;n by 

 Mr Pennant and others for a new species ; the des- 

 cription of his " ruddy plover" agreeing exactly with 

 this. * 



224. CHARADRIUS RUBIOUS, WILSON. 



RUDDY PLOVER. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXIII. FIG. IH.f SUMMER DRESS. 



THIS bird is frequently found in company with the 

 sanderling, which, except in colour, it very much 

 resembles. It is generally seen on the sea coast of 

 New Jersey in May and October, on its way to and 

 from its breeding place in the north. It runs with 

 great activity along the edge of the flowing or retreat- 

 ing waves on the sands, picking up the small bivalve 

 shell-fish, which supplies so many multitudes of the 

 plover and sandpiper tribes. 



I should not be surprised if the present species turn 

 out hereafter to be the sanderling itself, in a different 

 dress. Of many scores which I examined, scarce two 

 were alike; in some the plumage of the back Mas 

 almost plain, in others the black plumage was just 

 shooting out. This was in the month of October. 

 Naturalists, however, have considered it as a separate 

 species; but have given us no farther particulars than 

 that, " in Hudson's Bay, it is known by the name of 

 Mistchaychekiskaweshish," J a piece of information 

 certainly very instructive. 



* See Arctic Zoology, p. 486, No. 404. 



f This bird is the sanderling plover in its summer dress. 



i LATHAM. 



