352 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



SEMIPALMATED PLOVER {^gialilis semipalmata) . 

 Common or local names : Ring-neck; Little Ring-neck. 



Length. — 6.76 inches; bill .50; feet 'partly ivebbed. 



Adult. — Forehead white, bordered all around by a black band that also 

 surrounds the eye and extends below and behind it; spot behind eye, 

 chin, throat and ring around neck white; a black collar around base of 

 neck; rest of upper parts grayish brown; under parts white; legs and 

 feet pale flesh color; base of bill orange or yellow, tip black. 



Young. — No black markings; white of forehead reaches bill and eyes, and 

 is prolonged over latter, neck ring and stripe behind eye gray; upper 

 parts with slight whitish or rusty edgings of the feathers; bill mostly 

 black. 



Field Marks. — One black ring around neck. This bird is the color of wet 

 sand, while the Piping Plover, which is about the same size, is the color 

 of dry sand. 



Notes. — A simple, sweet, plaintive call. Chee-wee (Hoffmann). 



Season. — Common spring and autumn migrant coastwise, rare inland; late 

 April to mid October. 



Range. — North and South America. Breeds from Melville Island, AVelling- 

 ton Channel and Cumberland Sound to valley of Upper Yukon, southern 

 Mackenzie, southern Keewatin and Gulf of St. Lawrence; winters from 

 southern Lower California, Louisiana and South Carolina to Patagonia, 

 Chile and the Galapagos; casual in Siberia, Greenland and Bermuda. 



History. 

 This common and handsome little Plover is known almost 

 universally as the Ring-neck. It is one of the small birds 

 which rarely was shot by the earlier settlers or by sportsmen 

 up to the latter half of the nineteenth century; but since the 

 great depletion of the larger shore birds this little one has 

 become a common target. It is regarded now as legitimate 

 game, and its numbers have decreased rapidly of late. Only six 



