456 BIRDS — CHARADRIIDJE. 



Adnlt in breeding season (rarely seen in the United States) ; face and entire under 

 parts black ; upper parts variegated with black, and white or ashy ; tail barred with 

 black and white ; quills dusky with large white patches. Adults at other times and 

 young : below white more or less shaded with gray, the throat and breast more or less 

 speckled with dusky ; above blackish, speckled with wliite or yellowish ; the rump white 

 with dark bars, legs dull bluish. Old birds changing show every grade, from a few 

 isolated feathers on the under parts, to numerous large black patches. Length, 11-12 ; 

 wing, 7 or more ; tail, 3 ; bUl, l-lj ; tarsus, 2 ; middle toe and claw, H j tind toe, 

 hardly J. 



Habitat, nearly Cosmopolitan. 



Kather rare spring and fall migrant. More frequently seen on the 

 lake shore than elsewhere. Dr. Kirtland says that it is sometimes seen in 

 company with the Kildeer. Mr. Langdon gives it as rare in the vicinity 

 of Cincinnati, where Messrs. Dury and Freeman note its occurrence in 

 September. I met with a single specimen here in August, 1875. Mr. 

 Oliver Davie took a specimen in May, which was in breeding plumage, 

 but their spring migration ordinarily takes place in April. Both 

 these specimens were solitary birds, feeding on the gravelly shores of the 

 Scioto River, a short distance from this city. 



The Black-bellied Plover breeds in the Arctic regions, and possibly 

 further south on the Pacific coast. The nest, like that of all members of 

 the order, so far as known, is placed on the ground. The eggs are four, 

 brownish-clay color, thickly marked with spots of brownish-black, larger 

 and irregular about the greater end. They measure about 2 by 1.40 

 inches. 



Genus CHARADEIUS. Linnajus. 

 Tarsi and naked tibiss uniformly reticulated. 



Chaeadeius fulvus Gm. 

 var. viKGiNicus, (Borck.) Cs. 



Grolden Flover. 



Charadritis pluvialis, K1RTI.A.ND, Ohio Golog. Surv., 1838, 165, 184. 



Charadrius virginious, Wheaton, Ohio Agrio. Rep. for 1860, 368; Reprint, 1861, 10. 



Charadrius fulvua, var. mrginicus, Wheaton, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric, Rep. for 



1874, 572 ; Reprint, 1875, 12.— Langdon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 14 ; Revised 



List, Jonrn. Cin. Soo. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 181 ; Reprint, 15. 



Charadrius fulvua, Gmklin, Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 687. 

 Charadrius pluvialis, Wilson, Am. Orn., vii, 1813, 71. 

 Charadrius virginious, " Borch, Mus. Berol." 

 Charadrius fulvus, var. virginious, Coues, Key, 1872, 243. 



Plumage speckled above, and in the breeding season black below, as in the last species, 

 but much of the speckling bright yellow, and the rump and upper tail-coverts like the 



