THE KILL-DEER PLOVER. 413 



ing their peculiar whistle, and kill great numbers of them. 

 I have known two sportsmen to bag sixty dozen in two days' 

 shooting ; and instances are on record of still greater num- 

 bers being secured. The flesh of this bird is very delicate 

 and fine-flavored ; and the birds are in great demand in all 

 our markets, bringing equally high prices with the favorite 

 Woodcock. The Golden Plover feeds on grasshoppers, 

 various insects, and berries, but is seldom found in the inte- 

 rior of New England ; the pastures, fields, sandy hills, and 

 dry islands near the seacoast, being its favorite resorts. 



iEGIALITIS, Boie. 



jEgialitis, Boie, Isis (1822), 558. (Type Charadrius hiatiada, L.) 

 Plumage more or less uniform, without spots ; neck and head generally with 

 dark bands ; front of the legs with plates arranged vertically, of which there are 

 two or three in a transverse series. 



This genus, as far as North America is concerned, is distinguished from Chara- 

 irius by the generally lighter color and greater uniformity of the plumage, by the 

 absence of continuous black on the belly, and by the presence of dusky bands on 

 the neck or head ; the size is smaller ; the tarsi, in most species, have the front plates 

 larger, and conspicuously different in this respect from the posterior ones. 



fiGIALITIS VOCIFERUS.— Cassin. 

 The Kill-deer Plover. 



Ckaradrius voriferus, Linnteus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 253. Wils. Am. Orn., VT1 

 (1813) 73. Nutt. Man., II. 22. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 191; V. 577. lb. 

 Syn., 222. lb., Birds Am., V. (1842) 207. 



M<p.allts vocifervs, Bonaparte. List (1838). 



Description. 

 Wings long, reaching to the end of the tail, which is also rather long ; head above 

 and upper parts of body light-brown with a greenish tinge j rump and upper tail 

 coverts rufous, lighter on the latter; front and lines over and under the eye white; 

 another band of black in front above the white band; stripe from the base of the 

 bill towards the occiput brownish-black; ring encircling the neck and wide band on 

 the breast black; throat white, which color extends upwards around the neck; 

 other under parts white ; quills brownish-black with about half of their inner webs 

 white, shorter primaries with a large spot of white on their outer webs, secondaries 

 widely tipped or edged with white; tail feathers pale-rufous at base; the four mid- 

 dle light olive-brown tipped with white, and with a wide subterminal band of black; 

 lateral feathers widely tipped with white ; entire upper plumage frequently edged 



