Family CHARADRIID^. Genus .Egialitis. 



Subfamily Charadriin.f.. 



KILLDEER PLOVER. 



^GIALITIS VOCIFERA— (Zz««««5). 



Geographical Distribution. — British .• Two instances, one 

 of which appears to be surrounded by the gravest suspicion. 

 This latter concerns an example which was said to have been 

 killed in April, 1857, near Christchurch, in Hampshire (Sclater, 

 Ibis, 1862, p. 275). A second example appears to be genuinely 

 British. It was shot by aMr. Jenkinson on the 15th of January, 1885, 

 at Tresco, in the Scilly Islands, and was identified by Mr. Howard 

 Saunders {Zoologist, 1885, p. 113). Foreign. Nearctic region, 

 and parts of Neotropical region in winter. Breeds throughout 

 the United States, North to South Canada, and the plains of the 

 Saskatchewan. Resident in the Southern States, and California, 

 but migratory in the north, passing the Bermudas on migration, 

 and wintering in the West Indies, Mexico (where a few remain to 

 breed), Central America, and South America as far south as 

 Colombia and Peru. 



Allied Forms. — None more nearly allied than y£gialitis 

 hiaticula, its races and allies. 



Time during which the Killdeer Plover may be taken. 



— August I St to March ist. 



Habits. — In many parts of its range the Killdeer Plover is 

 sedentary, but in the colder portions it is more or less migratory, 

 although it often lingers even in them until late in the autumn, 

 and appears again very early in the following spring. It differs 

 very considerably, however, from the Ringed Plover in the choice 

 of a haunt, almost shunning the sea coasts altogether, and, like 

 the Dotterel, living in inland districts, on the banks of lakes, 

 pools, and rivers, and in swamps. It may be sometimes met 

 with near brackish back-waters and lagoons ; but the open sandy 

 coasts appear to have no attraction. The flight of this species is 



