GOLDEN PLOVER. 251 



autumn is most excellent, and they always command a good price 

 when exposed for sale in our markets. As the weather gets cold 

 they pass on to the Far South. They breed in regions beyond the 

 United States ; they are never very numerous in the Middle or 

 Eastern States, and, their flesh being savory, they are highly 

 prized.* 



DESCRIPTION. 



" The golden plover is ten inches and a half long and twenty- 

 one inches in extent ; bill short, of a dusky slate-color ; eye very 

 large, blue-black ; nostrils placed in a deep furrow and half 

 covered with a prominent membrane; whole upper parts black, 

 thickly marked with roundish spots of various tints of golden- 

 yellow ; wing-coverts and hind part of the neck pale brown, the 

 latter streaked with yellow ; front, broad line over the eye, chin, 

 and sides of the same, yellowish-white, streaked with small pointed 

 spots of brown olive ; breast gray, with olive and white ; sides 

 under the wings marked thinly with transverse bars of pale olive ; 

 belly and vent white ; wing-quills black, the middle of the shafts 

 marked with white ; greater coverts black, tipped with white ; tail 

 rounded, black, barred with triangular spots of golden-yellow; 

 legs dark dusky slate ; feet three-toed, with generally the slight 

 rudiments of a heel ; the outer toe connected as far as the first 

 joint with the middle one. The male and female differ very little 

 in color." 



There are several other varieties of plover known to our gunners ; 

 the flesh of the most of them is equally good, and when in season 

 is highly prized by the epicure. The two above described, how- 

 ever, are the largest and most distinguished of the species ; the 

 others are known as the ring-plover, piping-plover, kildeer-plover, 

 Wilson's plover, grass or field-plover, &c. 



The last-named variety, Tringa bartramiana, is not a coast or 



* The golden plover frequents tne sea-coast of the Middle and Eastern States in 

 the spring and early summer ; during the autumn they resort to the prairies and 

 interior feeding-grounds. 



