100 



BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



The eg-g-s, small at one end and quite pointed, measure about 1.50 

 inches long* by about 1.08 broad. 



" The food of this species consists of earth-worms, grasshoppers, 

 crickets and coleopterous insects, as well as small Crustacea, whether of 

 salt or fresh water, and snails. Now and then they may be seen thrust- 

 ing- their bills into the mud in search of some other food. During 

 autumn they run about the old fields and catch an insect which the blue- 

 bird has been watching with anxious care from the top of a withering 

 mullein stalk. They run briskly after the plowman to pick up the 

 worms that have been turned out of their burrows. Now standing on the 

 grassy meadow, after a shower, you see them patting the moist ground, 

 to force out its inhabitants. During winter you meet with them on 

 elevated ground, or along the margins of the rivers ; but wherever you 

 observe one about to pick up its food you clearly see its body moving in 

 a see-saw manner on the joints of the legs, until the former being so 

 placed that the bill can reach the ground, the object is seized, and the 

 usual horizontal position is resumed." Audubon. 



The food-materials, with date of collection and locality, of eleven 

 Killdeers examined by the writer, are given below : 



-ZEgialitis semipalmata BONAP. 



Semipalmated Plover ; Ring-neck ; Ring Plover. 



DESCRIPTION. 



"Small ; wings long, toes connected at base, especially the outer to the middle toe; 

 forehead, throat, ring around neck (behind) and entire under parts white ; a band 

 of deep black across the breast, extending around the back of neck below the white 

 ring. Band from the base ot bill under the eye, and wider frontal band above the 

 white band black ; upper parts ashy brown ; quills brownish-black with their shafts 

 white in a middle portion ; * * * * shorter tertiaries edged with white ; greater 

 coverts tipped with white ; middle feathers of the tail ashy-brown, with a wide sub- 

 terminal band of brownish-black, and narrowly tipped with white ; two outer tail- 

 feathers white, others intermediate, like the middle, but widely tipped with white ; 

 bill orange-yellow at base, black terminally ; legs pale flesh color. 



"Female similar, but rather lighter colored. 



" Young with the black replaced by ashy-brown, the feathers of the upper parts 

 bordered with paler (bill almost entirely black). Total length about 7 inches ; (ex- 

 tent about 15,) bill 45. to .50 ; tarsus .95." B, B. and R. B. of N. A. 



