PLOVERS 



(Family Charadriidce) 



Black-breasted Plover 



(Charadrius squatarola) 



Called also: BEETLE-HEAD; SWISS PLOVER; BULL-HEAD; 

 WHISTLING FIELD PLOVER; OX-EYE; BLACK-BEL- 

 LIED PLOVER; MAY COCK 



Length — n to 12 inches. 



Male and Female — In summer : Mottled black and white ; the up- 

 per parts black bordered with white ; tail white barred with 

 black; sides of head and neck and under parts black, except 

 lower abdomen and under tail coverts, which are white; axil- 

 lars (feathers growing from armpits) black. Short bill and 

 the feet and legs black ; a small hind toe. In winter: Simi- 

 lar, except that upper parts are brownish gray lightly edged 

 with white, and under parts are mixed black and white ; but 

 numerous intermediate stages occur, and the plumage is most 

 variable. Immature birds have black upper parts, the head 

 and neck streaked and the back spotted with buff or yellow 

 brown ; the breast and sides streaked with brownish gray. 



Range — Almost cosmopolitan ; nests in Arctic regions, and win- 

 ters from southern United States to the West Indies and 

 Brazil. 



Season — Spring and autumn migrant; May, June; August to Oc- 

 tober; more abundant in autumn. 



Crescent shaped flocks of black-breasted plover, launched on 

 a journey from one end of our continent to the other, come out of 

 the south in May ; and following routes through the interior, as well 

 as along the coasts, make short stops only on the way to nest 

 in the Arctic regions. They are now restless, as most birds are in 

 spring. Large and stout for plovers, distinctly black and white 

 while the nesting plumage is worn, there is less danger of con- 



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