THE PIPING PLOVBB. 419 



iEGIALITIS MELODUS. — ( Ord.) Cabtmia. 



The Piping Plover. 



Charadrius melodus, Nuttall. Man., II. 18. Avid. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 154 

 V. 578. 



jSSgialtes melodus, Bonaparte. List (1838). 

 uiSgiaMtis melodm, Cabanis. Jour. (1856), 424. 

 Charadrius hiaticula. Wils. Am. Orn., V. (1812) Ro 



Description. 



About the size of the preceding; bill short, strong. 



Adult. — Forehead, ring around the back of the neck, and entire under parts, 

 white, a band of black in front above the band of white; band encircling the neck 

 before and behind black, immediately below the ring of white on the neck behind ; 

 head above, and upper parts of body, light brownish-cinereous ; rump and upper tail 

 coverts lighter, and often nearly white; quills dark-brown, with a large portion of 

 their inner webs and shafts white; shorter primaries with a large portion of their 

 outer webs white ; tail at base white, and with the outer feathers white ; middle 

 feathers with a wide subterminal band of brownish-black, and tipped with white ; 

 bill orange at base, tipped with black; legs, orange-yellow. 



Female. — Similar to the male, but with the dark colors lighter and less in extent. 



Young. — No black band in front; collar around the back of the neck ashy- 

 brown; iris brown. 



Total length, about seven inches; wing, four and a half inches; tail, two inches. 



Bab. — Eastern coast of North America; Nebraska (Lieut. Warren); Louisiana 

 (Mr. G. Wurdemann). 



This pretty and well-known species is pretty abundantly 

 distributed along the coast of New England as a summer 

 resident. It arrives from the South about the 20th of April 

 in small flocks, and soon selects its breeding-residence on 

 some tract of ocean beach-; dividing, early in May, into pairs, 

 which, however, associate somewhat together through the 

 whole season. It occasionally penetrates into the interior, 

 and has been known to breed on the borders of a pond 

 twenty miles from the seaboard ; but generally, in New Eng- 

 land, it seldom wanders far from the shore, where it is one 

 of the most beautiful and interesting of our Waders. 



It seems to prefer sandy islands a short distance from the 

 main land for its breeding-place. I have found numbers 

 breeding on the island of Muskegeet, off the southern coast 

 of Massachusetts, and have found it on many others of our 

 islands of similar character. 



