164 



PR^COCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^D. 



^gialitis alexandrina nivosa. 



THE SNOWY PLOVER. 



^ijiaUtis nivosa, Cassix, in Bairds B. N. Am. 1858, 696 (San Francisco, C'al.). — Baikd, Cat. N. 



Am. B. 1S58, no. 509. 

 JEijialitis c.anlianus, var. nivosus, Itinnw. Am. Nat. VIII. 1874, 109. — CouES, Check List, 1873, 



App. p. 135, no. 401. 

 ySgialiUs canliantis nivosus, RiDGW. Nom. X. Am. B. 1882, no. 521. — CouE.s, Check List, 2d ed. 



1882, no. 591. 

 j^ginlifis cantianus, Coueh, Key, 1872, 245. 



Hab. Western Province of North America, both coasts of Middle America, and Western South 

 America as far as Chili ; Culja ? ^ 



Sp. Char. Bill slender, wholly deep black, as long as the middle toe. Adult malr ; Forehead, 

 superciliary region, indistinct nuchal collar, and entire lower parts, pure white ; a band across the 

 fore part of the crown, auriculars, and transverse patch on each side of the brea.st, black. Upper 



Summer plumaffc. 



parts, rather light brownish gray, the crown and occiput usually tinged with light reddish buff. 

 Primaries, dusky with white shafts, the inner cjuills marked with white ; inner secondaries almost 



1 A. tcnuirostris, Lawii. (Ann. Lye. N. Y. VII. Feb. 1862, p. 455), presumably the same species. 

 The description is as follows : — 



"Female: Crown, occiput, and back cinereous, the feathers with grayish-white margins ; wing-coverts 

 somewhat darker than tlie back, the ends of the larger coverts white, fornung a transverse bar on the 

 wing ; primaries umber-brown with the inner webs lighter, except at the end, and liaving the shafts 

 wliite ; the secondaries are of the same color as tlie primaries, and tipped with white ; tertiaries paler and 

 largely marked witli wliite ; scapulars ashy brown, lighter on tlie inner webs, and having both webs 

 crossed with rather obsolete narrow browai bars ; the middle upper tail-coverts are pale ocliieous brown, 

 the lateral ones white ; the four central tail-feathers are light ochreous brown at the ba.se, becoming darker 

 toward their ends ; the other tail-feathers are white, those next the central ones being pale ochreous at 

 the end ; front, a line over the eye, cheeks, a collar on the hind neck, and entire under plumage, pure 

 wliite ; a semi-collar of ashy brown on each side of the upper part of the breast ; bill black, with a small 

 space at the base of the under mandible of dull orange ; irides lilack ; tarsi and toes purplish black. 



" Length about 6| in. ; wing, 35 ; tail, I'j ; bill from front, i ; tarsi -{§ . 



" Jlabitnf, Cuba. 



" This species is allied to A. melodus, but is rather smaller ; the bill is longer, depressed at the base, 

 and regularly tapering to the end, where it is comparatively sharp ; in the latter it is quite obtuse and 

 different in form ; there is less white on the quills, with more on the tail, and the tarsi are longer than 

 these o( A. melodus." 



The above description, measurements and all, accords in every respect with the adult female of ^-B. 

 nivosa, and is probably of a specimen of that species. But a single specimen was captured, this being a 

 female caught with a net while sitting on her three eggs ; the time being July, and the place Guantanamo, 

 on the south coast of the eastern part of the island. 



