Plovers 



merit uttered as they drift with decurved wings and dangling 

 legs toward the decoys are soon silenced forever by a deadly 

 report. Twenty years ago the black-breasted and the golden 

 plovers were abundant on the Iowa and Illinois prairies in spring 

 and fall, but they were pursued by sportsmen so relentlessly that 

 now a flock is seldom seen in either state. The few birds that 

 remain seem to have chosen some other route for their migra- 

 tions, in order to escape the fusilades to which they were there 

 subjected. 



American Golden Plover 



(Cbaradrius dominicus) 



Called also: FIELD PLOVER; GREENBACK; GREEN PLOVER; 

 PALE-BREAST; TOAD-HE AD; PRAIRIE PIGEON; FROST 

 BIRD; SQJJEALER 



Length 10.50 inches. 



Male and Female In summer: Mottled upper parts black, green- 

 ish, golden yellow, and a little white, the yellow in excess; 

 tail brownish gray indistinctly barred with whitish ; sides of 

 breast white; other under parts and sides of head black; un- 

 der wing coverts ashy gray. Bill and feet black. In winter : 

 Upper parts and tail dusky, spotted or barred with yellow or 

 whitish, the colors not so pure as in summer; under parts 

 grayish white, purest on chin and abdomen ; the throat and 

 sides of head streaked ; the breast and sides of neck and 

 body mottled with dusky grayish brown ; legs dusky. 

 Immature birds resemble winter adults; also like black- 

 breasted plovers ; but the grayish axillars and the lack of a 

 fourth toe sufficiently distinguish this species from the pre- 

 ceding, however variable the plumage may be at different 

 seasons. 



Range North America at large ; nests in Arctic regions ; winters 

 from Florida to Patagonia. 



Season Spring and autumn migrant; May; August to Novem- 

 ber. 



Golden grain, golden rod, golden maple leaves, and golden 

 plover all come together; the birds not so yellow, it is true, as 

 they were in the spring, when they gave us only a passing 

 glimpse of their clearer, more intense speckled plumage, but still 

 yellow enough to be in harmony with nature's autumnal color 



239 



