230 



KEY AND DESGBIPTION 



A. Plumage of the back about uniform in color. (B.) 



B. Wing, 6-7 long ; rump, orange-brown 3. Killdeer. 



B. Wing, 5|-6 long ; no blacli band across breast. .8. Mountain Plover. 

 B. Wing less than 5J long. (C.) 



C. Culmen, J or more long ; a black or dark brown band across breast 



7. Wilson's Plover. 



C. Culmen about f long ; no black band across breast. . . . 



6. Snowy Plover. 



C. Culmen less than f long. (D.) 

 D. All toes distinctly webbed at base ; '■ feathers black be- 

 tween the eye and the bill 4. Semipalmated Plover. 



D. Inner toes without distinct webbing ; no black from the eye to the 

 bill 5. Piping Plover. 



1. Black-bellied Plover (270. Squatclrola squathrola). — As 

 seen in the autumn and winter in the United States : a 

 short-billed, short-tailed, large (for a plover), mottled, grayish- 

 brown, shore bird, 

 with grayish or whit- 

 ish under parts mot- 

 tled with more or less 

 of blackish on the 

 breast. This is our 

 only plover with a 

 hind toe ; it is mi- 

 nute, being only about 

 \ inch long. The bird 

 derives its name from 

 its very black under 

 parts, in the breeding 

 season, in the far north. During its northward migration in 

 the spring, it is found with a more or less complete black breast 

 and fore belly. The axillary plumes^ (long feathers 

 growing from the armpit and seen underneath the "l^^fep) 

 wings) are black. (Black-breast ; Bull-head Plover ; 

 Beetle-head.) 



Length, llj; wing, T\ (7-7 J) ; tail, 3; tarsus, 2; culmen, 11. Gen- 

 erally throughout the northern hemisphere, thougli not confined to it; 

 breeding far nortli, and wintering in Florida, the West Indies, and 

 northern South America. 



Blaok-liellied Plover 



