346 



blackish ; legs dull greenish ; iris brown. Total length about 8 - 5 inches, culmen - 92, wing 6"35, 

 tail 3'8, tarsus l - 45. 



Young in clown (Arizona). Upper parts generally marbled greyish stone-brown; a broad band over the 

 forehead white, and the black lines defined on the head as in the adult ; wings at the base like the 

 back, then black, and the terminal portion white ; hind neck, sides of the back, and an irregular 

 median line on the back black; underparts white, washed with warm buff on the sides, and on the 

 lower neck a black band. 



Obs. The sexes do not differ in plumage. According to Dr. Elliott Coues the young birds have the black 

 bands replaced by grey, and the upper parts duller and greyer, and when quite young the feathers of 

 the upper parts are spotted with rusty brown; rump pale; markings of tail incomplete; but they 

 speedily acquire the adult dress. 



The Killdeer Plover can only be included as a rare straggler to England, and has not been 

 observed in any other part of the Paleearctic area. It was first recorded as having been 

 obtained here by Dr. Sclater, who (Ibis, 1862, p. 276) stated that he received a mounted 

 specimen from Mr. John E,. Wise, which the latter gentleman said had been shot by a keeper 

 named Douding, in a potatoe-field near Knapp Hill, on the River Avon, about a mile from 

 Christchurch, in April 1857, and was taken in the flesh to Mr. Hart, the well-known bird-stuffer 

 in Christchurch, from whom it was bought by the owner Mr. Tanner. Mr. Howard Saunders 

 throws some doubt on the accuracy of the above statements ; but there can be no doubt whatever 

 respecting the second recorded occurrence, viz. that of a female which was shot by Mr. F. Jenkinson 

 at Tresco, one of the Stilly Islands, on the 14th January, 1885, and exhibited by me at a meeting 

 of the Zoological Society. Mr. Jenkinson sent me the following particulars of its capture, viz.: — 

 "On Sunday, 11th January, 1885, I was walking home by the Long Pool on Tresco, and 

 instinctively stopped to look at a favourite bit of mud and rushes at the west end. While I 

 was looking, a bird flitted a few yards and settled on the grass between me and the mud; and 

 as it did so it uttered a gentle half note which I felt sure belonged to no bird that I had 

 seen before. 



" It was tame enough, and remained about for three days, its return to that particular spot 

 apparently coinciding each day with the rise of the tide. On Monday I missed it, sitting, at 

 25 yards after a long crawl. I half hoped that the keeper, who is a better shot than I am, 

 would go after it, so I did not disturb it much. On Tuesday I put it up unexpectedly within 

 a yard or two of me from behind a wall where I was waiting. The chestnut tail-coverts were 

 very distinct as it flew away, uttering cries veritably ' vociferous,' but very plaintive and musical. 

 I did not fire at it on that occasion. Next day I began by shooting a Ring-Dotterel by mistake ; 

 I could not see the other anywhere; the day wore on, and I had to leave next morning. It was 

 getting quite late when, walking up to the other end of the pool, I saw, beyond a raised causeway 

 which crosses the pool there, a bird running on the wet ground. I fired instantly and the bird 

 just uttered one characteristic cry, which assured me that it was the one of which I was in 

 search, and lay there dead. 



