118 THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 



of intermediate specimens are found. Young are like the 

 old birds in winter dress; legs and feet, grayish white. 



The nests are depressions in the ground, lined with 

 grass and moss; the eggs, generally four in number, vary 

 in both color and size; they are from a brown to a green- 

 ish drab in color, with brown spots all over, and vary 

 from two to two and one-third inches in length and from 

 one and two-fifths to one and a half inches in breadth. 



The birds breed in Alaska and Siberia and other north- 

 ern countries and in winter migrate to South America. 

 In New Jersey they are transient, occurring between the 

 last of April and May 22, and again from July 20 to Sep- 

 tember 15. 



When they are found along the sea coast and in salt 

 water marshes and they are more frequent there than 

 in the interior they feed on insects, shellfish and small 

 fish, their flesh then having a sedgy flavor; when found 

 on the uplands and feeding on grasshoppers, field insects 

 and berries, their flesh is more palatable. 



Plover, Field. See Bartramian Sandpiper. 

 Plover, Grass. See Bartramian Sandpiper. 



Plover, Golden, or Greenback. Length, ten 

 inches; extent, twenty inches. Above, black, spotted 

 and mottled with golden yellow; top of the head, nearly 

 uniform black, forehead and sides of neck, white, and a 

 white patch on each side of the breast; long wing feathers, 

 dusky, with shafts pure white; tail transversely barred with 

 dark brown and dull white; under surface uniform black. 

 Young birds and adults in winter lack the black under 

 parts, which are dull white, mottled with gray on the 

 breast. 



The nest is circular, among moss or grass, lined with 

 grass and dead leaves. The eggs are generally four in 

 number, of a pale yellow, with dark reddish brown spots, 



