CHARADRITD.E — THE PLOVERS — ^GIALITIS. 157 



usually gli(l(>(l I'roni her iiost and ran a short distance before flying ; sometimes she 

 drooped her wings, and pretended lameness. The nests were near the edge of the 

 sea. near the water of small lakes, and on islands in rivers. Mr. MacFarlane speaks 

 of them as tolerably numerous in that quarter, as well as in the country betwixt 

 the Arctic coast and Fort Good Hope. On his annual July journey to that post, cu 

 route for Fort Simpson, he has noticed I'lovors of this species, together with their 

 young of the season, occujiied in i'eeding and diverting themselves on the shores of 

 the different lakes. 



Mr. Ludwig Kumlien mentions the arrival of this bird in the Cumberland waters 

 aliiiiit the middle of June, and .says tliat it is by no means rare there, breeding on 

 the mossy banks of fresh-water ponds. It migrates southward as soon as the fresh- 

 water ponds are frozen over. 



An egg of this species (No. Ill) collected in Labrador by Thienemann is of oblong- 

 oval shape, tapering at one end and rounded at the other. The ground-color is a nearly 

 pure drab, and the markings are scattered, isolated, rounded, occasionally irregiilarly 

 shaped blotches of dark bistre, hardly distinguishable from black. Some are diluted 

 with the ground-color, and are more obscure, having a shading of purplish slate ; 

 another (No. 172), also from Labrador, collected by Dr. Trudeau, is more rounded 

 in shape, the blotches being larger, and the deep bistre, in a strong light, shaded with 

 wine-color. Three others (No. 1882) from St. George's Bay, collected by Mr. Drexler, 

 June 2G, 1860, correspond with No. 111. These eggs have the following measure- 

 ments : No. Ill, 1.35 inches by .99 ; No. 172, 1.20 by .98 ; No. 1882, 1.25 by 1.00, 

 l.;J0 liy .90, and 1.35 by .99. 



^gialitis hiaticula. 



THE EUROPEAN KING PLOVER. 



Clucradrins hinfknla, LiXN. S. N. ed. 10, I. 1758, 150; ed. 12, I. 1766, 253. — Naum. Vbg. 



Deutschl. VII. 1833, 291, pi. 175. — M.\CGILL. Man. II. 52. — Scki.eg. Rev. Ciit. 83.— 



GitAV, Gen. III. 544 ; ('.it. Brit. B. 1863, 140. 

 yEgutlitii hiaticula, Boie, Isis, 1822, 558. — Keys. & Blas. Wirb. Kur. 71. — Ridgw. Nom. N. 



Am. B. 1881, >fo. 518. — CouEs, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, Nc 589. 

 Charadrius torquatas, Leach, Sy.st. Cat. 1816, 28. 

 ^-Egialitis scptcntrionalis, Biieiim, Vbg. Deutschl. 548. 

 Bialicula nunulnta, Gr.AT, Li.st Gen. B. 1840, 65. 

 TJie Ring Dotterel, Bewick, Brit. B. I. 1797, 334, fig. 

 Einged Plover, Vai:r. Brit. B. ed. 2, II. 465, fig. ed. 3, II. 494, fig. et ArCT. 



Hab. The Pala'arctie Region, and portions of Arctic America, breeding on western shores of 

 Cumberland Gulf (Kumlien). 



Sp. Char. Adult : A narrow frontlet, band across fore part of the cro^vii, auriculars, lores, and 

 sub-orbital region, black, all these areas confluent ; collar across lower part of the nape, continuous 

 with a broad jugular band, also black. Forehead, postocular patch, nuchal collar, chin, throat, 

 malar region, and lower parts (except as described) pure white. Pileum and upper parts generally, 

 deep hro'\^Tiisli gray or grayish brown. Basal half of bill orange-red in life, yellowish or otherwise 

 liglit colored in the skin ; legs and feet orange ; iris dark brown ; terminal half of bill black. 

 Younei : The black markings obsolete (replaced by dull grayish) and the feathers of the upper 

 surface bordered with pale huffy. Bill wholly duslvv. 



Wing, about 5.00 ; culmen, ,50-..55 ; tarsus, about 1.00 ; middle too, .60-.65. 



With a close general resemblance to ^^. semipalmata, this species may be immediately dis- 

 tinguished by the entire absence of a web between the inner ,and middle toes, the smaller size of 

 that between the outer and middle toes, the much greater widtli of tlie black beneath the eye, 

 and of that across the jugulum. It is also decidedly larger; wliiU- there are other differences of 

 coloration. 



