208 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
been killed already. The last specimen taken, so far as we know, was 
killed at Hog Island, Hancock county, Maine, Sep. 2, 1909 (O. W. Knight, 
Auk, XXVII, 1910, 79). 
The food of all the curlews consists partly of animal matter and partly 
of vegetable material, and the present species is known to feed freely on 
locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, and a large variety of other insects, as well 
as on various seeds, grains and berries. It formerly visited Labrador 
after the breeding season, largely to feast on the crow-berry or curlew- 
berry (Empetrum nigrum), and some other abundant berries before starting 
on its long journey southward. 
This is another of the species which formerly reached southern Argentina 
and even Patagonia on its southward migration. The writer saw it in 
flocks of hundreds on the Argentine Pampas in January and February, 
1880 and 1881. 
It formerly bred in large numbers on the Barren Grounds, within the 
Arctic Circle, laying three or four spotted eggs in a poorly lined hollow in 
the ground. The eggs average 2.04 by 1.43 inches. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Top of head uniformly streaked with brownish black and proms or buffy white, without 
any median light stripe; an indistinct light stripe from bill over eye; remainder of head 
and neck buffy white, narrowly streaked with dusky or brownish black, the markings 
becoming arrow-shaped or v-shaped on the lower throat and breast, the sides and flanks 
with larger bars of the same color. Inner webs of primaries uniform brownish without 
bars. Length 12.60 to 14.50 inches; wing 8 to 8.50; culmen 2.25 to 2.50; tarsus 1.70 to 1.80. 
Family 27. CHARADRIIDA. Plover. 
KEY TO SPECIES. 
A. Large, wing over 6 inches, bill nearly or quite 1 inch. B, BB. 
B. Three-toed, hind toe lacking. C, CC. 
C. Wing not over 6} inches; neck encircled by a broad white 
ring with a black ring below it. Killdeer. No. 116. 
CC. Wing more than 62 inches; neck without rings. Golden 
Plover. No. 115. 
BB. Bes ier hind toe short but distinct. Black-bellied Plover. 
o. 114. 
AA. Small, wing not over 5 inches; a complete white ring around neck, 
with a dark collar below it. E, EE. 
E. General color of upper parts (back, etc.) pale gray or even 
grayish white. Piping Plover. No. 118. 
EE. ee of upper parts dark brownish gray. Ringneck. 
o. 117, 
114, Black-bellied Plover. Squatarola squatarola (Linn.). (270) 
Synonyms: Gray Plover, Beetle-head, Black-breast, Four-toed Plover.—Tringa 
squatarola, Linn., 1758, T. helvetica, 1766.—Squatarola helvetica, Cuv., 1817, and authors 
generally.—Charadrius helveticus, Licht., Nutt., Aud—Charadrius apricarius, Wils. 
_ Likely to be confounded in any plumage with the Golden Plover which 
it closely resembles. With specimens in hand, however, they can be 
