346 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of October. There are few spring records for western New York, the flight 

 passing rapidly over, about the last of May. On the first of June 1895, 

 a large flock of these birds in company with tumstones, sanderlings and 

 Semipalmated sandpipers, visited Canandaigua lake, and similar visitations 

 are occasionally reported from Lakes Erie and Ontario. 



The Black -bellied. Whistling, or Gray plover is well known to the 

 gunnel's of the Long Island coast, who also call it Beetle-head and Bull- 

 head plover. Though larger than the Golden plover, its flesh is inferior, 

 probably from the fact that it frequents the muddy shores and feeds on 

 marine insects, while the Golden plover is more often found in the dry fields, 

 feeding on berries and grasshoppers. The plaintive whistle of this plover 

 is often heard high in the air in migration time when the birds themselves 

 are quite beyond vision. It is a louder, shriller whistle than that of the 

 Golden plover, consisting of several notes, the second prolonged and receiv- 

 ing the greatest accent. They are shy birds, very difficult to approach, or 

 to decoy within range. Their flight impresses one with the idea of strength 

 and sufficiency. Time and distance seem of little account to this bird as 

 he starts for fresh feeding grounds, or leaves the shores of Lake Ontario 

 for his jotuney to Hudson bay. 



Charadrius dominicus Muller 

 American Golden Plover 



Plate 30 



Charadrius dominicus Muller. Syst. Nat. Sup. 1776. p. 116 

 Charadrius virginianus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 213, fig. 178 

 Charadrius dominicus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 272 



chara'drius, Lat., plover; domi'nicus, Lat., of St Domingo 



Description. Bill rather short; legs moderate; wings long; no hind 

 toe; legs reticulate with hexagonal scales. Summer: Upper parts black 

 spotted and margined with golden yellow and whitish, most strongly on 

 the crown and back ; forehead, line on side of head above the eye extending 

 down the neck and sides of breast white ; entire under parts black ; tail gray, 

 barred with dusky; axillars and lining of wings ashy; primaries blackish, 

 central parts of their shafts and basal part of inner webs white ; bill black ; 

 legs dusky bluish. Winter: Upper parts fuscous, spotted and barred with 



