154 



CHAEADEITJS. 



Local dis- 

 tribution. 



from 6-2 to 5-7 inch. Its pale legs and feet ^ distinguish it from all its allies, except from 

 C. asiuticus. In breeding-dress the two species are very different, the latter having white 

 lores, no black on the head, but a black band below the chestnut breast ; whilst the American 

 species has black lores, a great deal of black on the crown adjoining the white forehead, 

 but no black band across the underparts. In winter plumage the comparative length of 

 the tail is the best distinction, that of the Asiatic bird measuring 2-0 to 2*1 inch, and 

 that of the American species 2'3 to 2'6 inch. 



The Rocky-Mountain Plover is not specially a mountain species. It lives on the dry 

 grassy prairies of North America, throughout the United States, and is probably only a 

 summer visitor to the northernmost part of its range. 



Although it is not a shore bird it loses the black markings on the head in autumn, 

 but it is not known that the sexes differ in colour. 



CHARADRIUS WILSONI. 



WILSON'S PLOVER. 

 Diagnosis. Chaeadrius, subgen.^^iaZo^Mi»2a;ores,pedibuspallidis: maxillae arcu longiore (circa lllmillim.). 



Variations. SoME American ornithologists recognize a tropical form of this species, which is supposed 

 to be more rusty on the nape, darker on the back, and in the female on the lores. 



Synonymy. Charadrius wilsonius, Ord, Wilson, Am. Orn. ix. p. 77 (1825). 



Charadrius crassirostris, Spix, Av. Bras. ii. p. 77 (1825). 



^gialites wilsonius [Ord), Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. ^ N. Amer. p. 45 (1838). 

 Hiaticula wilsoni (Ord), Gray, List Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 70 (1844). 

 Ochthodromus wilsonius {Ord), Reichenb. fide Bonaparte, Compt. Rend, xliii. p. 418 (1856). 

 iEgialitis wilsonius, var. rvArmch\xs,Ridgway, Amer. Nat. viii. p. 109 (1874). 

 Ochthodromus wilsonius rufinuchus [Ridgw.), Baird, Brewer, ^ Ridgway, Water-Birds of N. 

 Amer. i. p. 168 (1884). 



^ The legs and feet of G. montanus certainly look pale enough in the dried skin, but authorities differ. 

 "Legs yellow" (Baird, Cassin, & Lawrence, Birds N. Amer. p. 693); "Feet light dull brownish yellow" 

 (Audubon, Orn. Biogr. iv. p. 363); "legs pale" (Coues, Eey N.-Amer. Birds, p. 604); legs greenish grey" 

 (Dresser, Ibis, 1866, p. 34); "legs and feet leaden blue" (Coues, Ibis, 1866, p. 267). Baird, Brewer, and 

 Kidgway, to whom we naturally look to find an explanation of these conflicting statements, preserve a 

 discreet silence on the subject. 



