152 NOTES ON THE 
lighter on the latter; front, and line over and under the eye 
white; another band of black in front above the white band; 
stripe from the base of the bill towards the occiput brownish- 
black; ring encircling the neck, and a wide band on the breast 
black; throat white, which color extends upwards around the 
neck; other under parts white; quills brownish-black with 
about half their inner webs white, shorter primaries with a 
large spot of white on their outer webs, secondaries widely 
tipped or edged with white; tail feather pale rufous at base; 
the four middle, feathers light olive-brown tipped with white 
and with a subterminal band of black; lateral feathers widely 
tipped with white; entire upper plumage frequently edged 
and tipped with rufous. 
Length, 9.50; wing, 6.50; tail, 3.50. 
Habitat, temperate North America. 
HGIALITIS SEMIPALMATA Bonaparte. (274) 
SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. 
The lateness of the season when this Plover enters Minne- 
sota, early suggested that it must breed here, but no nests 
were fonnd for many years. Flocks of a dozen or less are 
quite uniformly met with in the last week in April along the 
streams, and about the ponds and lakes, more after the man- 
ner of the Snipes than the Plovers, which affect the dry open 
plains. After remaining where they are frequently seen for 
about ten days, they disappear as abruptly as do the Swallows 
in autumn, and are seldom seen again till August 20th to the 
25th after which they remain until the early part of October 
before taking final leave of us for the more genial climes, said 
to be Brazil and Peru and South America. At this season 
they gather into quite large flocks before retiring, which we 
are told become much larger as they gradually work their 
way southward. The nest is little more than a slight hollow, 
excavated in the sand by the bird, near the shores of ponds, 
and contains the stereotyped number, four eggs of a dull yel- 
lowish color, spotted and. blotched all over with varying 
shades of darkish-brown. They are almost typically pyri- 
form in shape. One nest was discovered near St. Paul in 1879, 
by Mr. Gober, who sent the eggs away to some eastern o6l- 
ogist as a capital trophy, but not until I had an opportuity to 
examine them, and see the female, obtained at the same time. 
The other nest was obtained by a resident of Minneapolis, and 
not far from the city, and still more recently with which the 
bird was secured also. I hear of one, also found quite as near 
the city, by a young man who, for some reason best known to 
