RINGED PLOVER 219 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. On the front of the 

 head is a black band extending from the top of one eye 

 across to the other ; in front of this is a shorter white band, 

 limited below by a narrow black band which extends from 

 the base of the upper segment of the beak backwards under 

 the eye to the ears ; above this a white stripe extends back- 

 wards behind the eye ; rest of head, and back of neck, 

 mouse-brown ; back, scapulars, and wings, brown ; there is 

 a narrow white alar bar ; primaries, dark brown, the shafts 

 of all and the outer webs of the shorter ones marked with 

 white ; a white ring encircles the upper neck, below which 

 is a black ring, broadest in front at the upper breast ; 

 lower breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts, white ; upper 

 tail -coverts, greyish - brown ; outer pair of tail-feathers, 

 white ; central pair almost completely brown, tipped with 

 white, this colour increasing in the lateral series, the 

 feathers of which are not only tipped but edged along their 

 outer webs with white. 



Adult female nuptial. Similar to the male plumage, but 

 the black band on the breast is sometimes narrower. 



Adult winter, male and female. The black markings are 

 duller and not so sharply denned as in the nuptial plumage. 



Immature, male and female. Differs from the adult in 

 having a dull brownish-black neck-ring, often incomplete in 

 front (cf. Kentish Plover) ; the band on the face is dusky, 

 and there is no black band on the top of the head. 



BEAK. Short ; basal half, yellow ; terminal half, black. 



FEET. Rich chrome-yellow. 



TRIBES. Blackish-brown. 



AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 



TOTAL LENGTH 7'75 in. 



WING 5-25 



BEAK .. 0'6 ,, 



TARSO-METATARSUS ... ... 1 ,, 



EGG 1-4 X 1 in. 



Allied Species and Representative Forms. 2E. semipal- 

 mata, with semi -webbed feet, and smaller in size, is the 

 American representative. 



