416 ORXTTHOLOGT AND OOLOGY. 



ous spots and blotclies of dark-brown, chiefly at their greater 

 end. They vary in dimensions from 1.65 by 1.10 inch to 

 1.50 by 1.08 inch ; but one brood is reared in the season. 



^IGIALITIS WlLSOmVS. — { Ord.) Cassin. 



Wilson's Plover; Ring-neck. 



Charadrius Wihonivs, Ord. Ed. Wils. Orn., IV. (1825) 77. Nutt. Man, II. 

 (1834) 21. And. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 73; V. (1839) 577. lb., Bir J; Am., V. 

 '1842) 214. 



Description. 



Smaller than the preceding; bill rather long and robust. 



Male. — Front, and stripe over the eve, and entire under parts, white; front with 

 a second band of black above the white band; stripe from the base of the bill to the 

 eye and wide transverse band on the breast, brownish-black; upper parts of head 

 and body light ashy-bro-mi, with the feathers frequently edged and tipped with pale- 

 ashv; back of the neck encircled with a ring of white, edged above with fine light- 

 reddish; quills bro^vn, with white shafts; shorter coverts tipped with white; outer 

 feathers of the tail white, middle feathers dark-brown; bill black; legs yellow. 



Female. — Without the band of black in front, and with the pectoral band dull- 

 reddish and light ashy-brown; iris reddish-brown. 



Total length, seven and three quarter inches; wing, four and a half inches; tail, 

 two inches. 



Hab. — Middle and Southern States on the Atlantic, and the same coast of South 

 America. 



This species is found in New England only as a somewhat 

 rare visitor in the autumn, after it has reared its young in a 

 more southern locality. I think that it seldom passes north 

 of the southern coast of Cape Cod ; but it is there occa- 

 sionally seen in the early part of September, gieainng its 

 food of animalculce and small shell-fish and insects on the 

 sandy beach of the ocean. 



The Wilson's Plover is more southern in its habits than 

 either of the su.cceeding species ; but it breeds abundantly 

 on the seacoast of New Jersey. The nest is nothing but a 

 hollow scratched in the sand, above high-water marlv, with 

 a few bits of seaweed or grass for its linino;. The ea-o-s are 

 laid about the first week in June. They are, like those 

 of the other Waders, pyriform in shape; and, when placed 

 in the nest, their small ends are together in the middle of 

 the nest. They almost exactly resemble the eggs of the 



