98 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Detwiller has observed this species in Lehighand Northampton counties 

 as a rare visitant, and Mr. Thomas S. Gillin reports it to be an irregular 

 migrant in Montgomery county. This plover has also been noted 

 either as a straggler or irregular migrant in other parts of the state by 

 the following gentlemen : Dr. Van Fleet, Clinton county ; H. A. Ting- 

 ley, M. D., Susquehanna county ; D. F. Keller, Berks county ; George 

 Spencer Morris, Philadelphia county and W. H. Buller, Lancaster 

 county. The Black-bellied Plover is mentioned by Audubon, Wilson 

 and other writers as breeding in Pennsylvania. It does not now breed 

 in this state, but retires to the dreary Arctic regions to rear its young. 

 This species feeds on beetles, grasshoppers, worms, etc. ; also, occa- 

 sionally, on different kinds of seeds and berries. 



Charadrius dominicus MULL. 



American Golden Plover ; Field Plover ; Bull-head Plover. 



DESCRIPTION (Plate 82). 



This bird, very similar to C. squatarola, can easily be recognized by the absence 

 of the hind toe and the grayish or white axillars ; the dusky or blackish upper parts 

 are usually more brightly spotted with golden-yellow. 



Habitat. A.rctic America, migrating southward throughout North and South 

 America to Patagonia 



The Golden Plover is said to be a rather common and regular migrant 

 in the vicinity of Lake Erie, especially in the fall, when, frequently, 

 large numbers of these birds are shot in the meadows and fields .about 

 Erie city. This bird is found generally throughout the commonwealth, 

 but is very irregular in its visitations, except in the region, about the 

 great lake to the north of Erie county. 



I have never seen the Golden Plover in eastern Pennsylvania during 

 the spring migrations, and as an autumnal visitant it is uncertain. For 

 several consecutive seasons none will be observed in certain districts ; 

 the following season, however, the birds will be found abundantly in 

 these same districts. The largest flight of Golden Plovers that I ever 

 saw in this section (Chester county) was in the fall of 1880, when flocks 

 of from fifty to one hundred were quite plentiful about the plowed 

 grounds and grass fields in the neighborhood of West Chester. Mr. 

 Francis Jacobs, of West Chester, informs me that about the year 1860 

 Bull-head* Plovers were abundant in the Great Valley and in the 

 vicinity of West Chester, where, in September, they came in flocks of hun- 

 dreds and literally covered the fields where wheat had been sown. " In 

 those days the wheat was sown, as but few farmers had drills." Mr. Jacobs 

 states that he has often killed fifteen or twenty at one shot, and, in 

 company with his brother, has shot two hundred or more in one day. 



* The name Bull-head is given to both the Golden and Black-bellied Plovers. I suppose the birds men- 

 tioned by my friend Mr. Jacobs to have been Golden Plovers (C'fyaradrius dominicus). 



