CHARADRIIDZE — CHARADRIINZ: PLOVER. 601 
larly variegated; several inner pairs like the back, insensibly blackening towards ends, then 
lightening again, and usually with rusty tips; lateral ones gaining more and more of the bright 
color of the rump, with more definite black subterminal bars, and pure white tips; outermost 
pair mostly white, with the rufous shade, and several broken black bars. The effect of all this 
variegation is very striking when the parts are displayed in flight. Bill black; eye black, 
with a bright ring around it; legs pale. Length 9.00-10.00; extent 20.00; wing 6.00; tail 3.50- 
4.00, proportionally longer and more rounded than usual in this genus; bill 0.80; tibize bare 
0.50; tarsus 1.40; middle toe and claw1.12. ¢9, young: The black bands replaced by gray > 
upper parts duller and more grayish ; and when quite young the feathers of the upper parts 
spotted with rusty brown; rump pale, markings of tail incomplete; but the birds speedily 
acquire a plumage like that of the adults. Downy young: Above, gray with a ruddy tinge ; 
a ring round top of head, aring round neck, 
a stripe down back, and another on each 
side of the colored area, black ; collar round 
back of neck, forehead, and ends of wing- 
tufts, white; tail-tuft and bill black — queer 
little creatures, readily recognized. N. Am. 
at large, very abundant, breeding anywhere ; 
abounds in the West. Not gregarious nor 
maritime ; extensively but somewhat ir- 
regularly migratory. A very noisy bird — 
the curious name is derived from its shrill 
two-syllabled whistle, like kil-deer! kil- 
deer! Nest anywhere in the grass or 
shingle near water. Eggs 4, about 1.50 x 
1.12, of usual wading-bird shape ; ground 
varying from drab through clay-color to 
creamy, marked in endless variation with 
blackish-brown. Kildeers’ eggs and those of Tringoides macularius do excellent duty in boys’ 
and amateurs’ cabinets for those of most small waders. 
. 4, wilso/nius. (To Alexander Wilson.) Wuson’s Putover. Adult ¢ 9: Above, pale 
ashy-gray (dry-sand color), the feathers with still paler edges, the shade tending to fulvous on 
the nape and hind neck. A narrow black band across vertex, not reaching to eyes, being cut 
off by white of the forehead which extends backward over each eye to nape. A blackish loral 
stripe, not prolonged behind eye, not meeting its fellow oyer base of bill, where the white fore- 
head comes down to the bill. A black half-ring on the foreneck, not completed around back 
of neck. White of throat passing around hind-neck as a slight collar. Under parts, excepting 
the black bar, entirely white. Primaries blackish, bleaching towards bases on inner webs, the 
short inner ones also with white on outer webs. Shaft of lst primary almost entirely white ; 
of others brown, then a long white space, then blackening at end. Secondaries, excepting the 
long inner ones, mostly white on inner webs, dark on outer. Middle and intermediate tail- 
feathers like back, growing dusky toward ends, nearly all with white tips, and the outer one 
or two white. No colored ring roundeye. Bill entirely black ; extremely large and stout. Legs 
flesh-colored ; outer toe semipalmate, inner cleft. Length 7.00-8.00; wing 4.50-5.00; tail 
2.00, nearly square ; tarsus about 1.10; middle toe and claw 0.90; bill 0.90, not much shorter 
than head. Young: Similar; no black on vertex or lore; a broad band of the color of the 
back across the neck in front. Seacoast of 8. Atlantic and Gulf States, common; N. to the 
middle districts, and rarely to New England; also on the Pacific side to California? 5S. in 
winter into S. Am. Eggs laid on the bare shingle of the beach ; usually 3, 1.22 to 1.45 long, 
1.00 to 1.05 broad, pale olive-drab, more greenish in some cases, more clay-colored in others, 
Fie. 419. — Kildeer Plover, nat. size. (Ad. nat. del. E.C.) 
