SHORE AND MARSH BIRDS. Plovers 



American Golden Plover: CJiaradriua dominicus. 



Field Plover. 



Plate 64. Fig. 2. 



Length : 10-11 inches. 



Male and Female: Subject to great variations of plumage. Above 

 mottled with black and greenish yellow ; whitish below. Axil- 

 lary feathers dark ashy. Bill and feet black. 



Season : Common autumn migrant ; early September. 



Breeds : Arctic regions. 



Mange : Arctic America, migrating southward throughout North and 

 South America to Patagonia. 



This species is the ■well-known Plover of the markets, and 

 the favourite of sportsmen. They are to be found in the salt- 

 marshes and about sand-bars and tide-pools. Their coming 

 is irregular ; sometimes a great flock will alight, and then 

 again only a few stragglers. They usually pass from late 

 August until middle September ; heavy storms may delay 

 them, or, if the weather is evenly fine, they often fly over 

 any given locality without pausing. This uncertainty about 

 the arrival of many birds, especially the various Water- 

 birds that visit us only as migrants, is due largely to the 

 chances of weather. If September is a pleasant month 

 and there are few gales, the great body fly out at sea and 

 pass Connecticut altogether. In the spring migration they 

 are but little noticed, the sportsman must not shoot them, 

 and the bird-lover is kept from marshes by the flood-tides ; 

 but when a great storm comes during the fall migration, the 

 Golden Plover not only flies close to the land, but flies low, 

 and then he falls an easy prey to the sportsmen who are 

 lying in wait for him. 



Killdeer Plover: JEgialitis vocifera. 



Length : 9-10 inches. 



Male and Female : Gray-brown, washed with olive above ; rump 



variegated with all shades of orange and reddish brown. 



White frontlet and red eyelids. Below white ; collar and 



breastlet of black. Bill black ; legs light. 

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