KEY AJ^n DESCIUI'TION 



webbed. In feeding, the small flocks of five to ten scatter, 

 but on the wing form a compact bunch. (Ring-neck.) 



Length, 7; wing, 4| (4|-5) ; tail, 2^; tarsus, 1; oulnien, \. North 

 America ; breeding in the Arctic regions, and wintering from the Gulf 

 States to Brazil. 



6. Piping Plover (277. yEgialltis meldda). — A wary, coast- 

 living, short-billed, ashy-backed, white-bellied plover, with 

 a narrow, black collar on the sides, but not cotnplete across 

 the breast, and a narrow, black stripe from eye to eye above 

 the forehead. In winter the black is replaced by brownish 



gray. Its notes are 

 peculiarly sweet and 

 musical, a peep- 

 peep-pe(;p-o. (Pale 

 Eing-neck.) 



Length, 7; wing, 4} 

 (4l-4i); tail, 2; ; tar- 

 sus, J; culmen, 1 near- 

 ly. Eastern North 

 America; breeding 

 from the coast of Vir- 

 Piping Plover §>">» north to New- 



foundland, and winter- 

 ing from Florida southward. The Belted Piping Plover (277". ^-B. m. 

 circumcincla) is nmch like the last, but has the black collar complete 

 across the breast. The young lack this complete collar. Mississippi 

 Valley ; breeding from northern Illinois northward, and wintering from 

 the Gulf southward. Occasionally eastward to the Atlantic coast. 



6. Snowy Plover (l.'7S. ^■Eijialltis nicdsa). — An extreme 

 western, grayish-brown-backed plover, with the forehead, line 

 over eye, somewhat of a collar around the back neck, and all 

 lower parts pure white. Above the white forehead there is a 

 black patch on the crown, another on the ear coverts, and a 

 third on the side of the breast. The young has the black mark- 

 ings replaced by ashy-brown. 



Length, 65; wing, 4|; tail, 2 ; tarsus, 1 ; culmen, |. Western North 

 America from California ea.stward to Kansas and Texas; wintering in 

 Central America and western South America. 



