362 jEGlALlTIS W1LHON1US. 



Young. Similar to the adult female, but much more reddish, especially on band across breast. Iris, brown, bill, 

 black, and feet, yellow, in all stages. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Known from all other Plovers having a single ring around neck, by the comparatively large size of the bill which is not 

 only thick but is nearly as long as the head. Distributed in summer along the Eastern coast as far north as New Jersey. 

 Winters on the Florida Keys and Bahamas. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Average measurements of specimens from Florida. Length, 7'85; stretch, IS'OO; wing, 5'75; tail, l'7o; bill, '88; tar- 

 Bus, 1-12. Longed specimen, 8- 15; greatest extent of wing, KVOO; longest wing, 5'90; tail, 2'00; bill, 1-05; tarsus, I'i8. 

 Shortest specimen, 7'50; smallest extentof wing, H'OO; shortest wing, 4'65: tail, 1'45; bill, '70; tarsus, 1-05. 



DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 



E&ys, placed on the ground in a slight depression of the soil, on a few bits of shells, etc.; three in number, pyriform in 

 shape, creamy in color, finely and thickly lined and spotted with black, but there are more lines than spots. Dimensions 

 from 1'OOx 1'35 to l'05x 1'40. 



HABITS. 



The northern end of Key West is comparatively barren as the lime rock which forms 

 the foundation of the entire key, has here only a scant supply of soil over it and, conse- 

 quently, there is but very little vegetation. Between this section and the southern, or 

 more fertile, end of the key, is a low-lying tract which can be flooded with sea water and 

 which, in fact, some years ago, formed, in a great measure, natural salt ponds, but they 

 then only covered a limited surface. Now, however, square, shallow basins have been dug 

 over a greater extent, and used for the manufacture of salt, the water being let into them 

 and allowed to evaporate in the sun, leaving the salt. These square basins are separated 

 from one another by dykes along which one can walk and where various species of shore birds 

 alight. Among them are large quantities of Plovers of the genus of which I am writing, 

 and I have, with a single discharge of my gun, killed three species, viz., Wilson's, Piping, 

 and Ringneck; and the day when I took the first and only specimen of the Mountain Plover 

 ever shot east on the Mississippi, I secured, in all, six species of the genus jEgialitis in 

 about an hour, a feat which I will venture to say, will seldom be repeated. 



While here, I paid considerable attention to the habits of Wilson's Plover, then in 

 the winter dress, but did not observe that they differed strikingly from other small Plov- 

 ers, excepting that, perhaps, the flight is a little heavier; but when I found them breeding 

 on Indian River, a few years later, I found that they had some characteristic habits. 



Early in May I observed the males in pursuit of the females and alighting beside them, 

 at the same time uttering a series of peculiar, sharp, abruptly given whistles. Confident 

 that they were breeding, a few days later I visited the beach ridge, just north of Cape Ca- 

 naveral, to look for the eggs, but although there were several pairs of birds circling about, 

 it was not until I happened to see a female run from the nest, that I chanced to discover her 

 three eggs. These were placed in a small hollow scratched in the sand, on some bits of 

 shell and fish bones gathered by the birds, but in a little open space, surrounded by sea 

 purslane, a low plant which grows plentifully about; and all that I afterward found, were 

 placed in a similar situation. The birds ran nimbly about or circled overhead, so that it 

 was impossible to decide just where a nest was situated, and the males were constantly 



