The Belding Plover 



the sand, but we couldn't find the children, although we kept calling and 

 calling and heard them peeping all the time. By and by one spilled out of 

 the sky and then another, and then the hat blew over, for the wind was 

 freshening, and we dug under the brim to let the last baby out. This 

 time we hid those babies in good earnest, and told them to keep absolutely 

 still. Poor little Nivvy! I think the man saw him, though he didn't 

 touch him. We found him facing the wind half buried in the sand with 

 his poor little eyes wide open, but each covered with a wet mound of sand. 

 Oh, must you be going, Tillie? Yes, I believe it is time for a bite. 

 And there is Nivvy, now, chasing a bug over by that Hermit Crab pool. 

 Nivosa! come here this minute! Those youngsters are so careless. Yes, 

 dear! I'll see you next spring — if the Caranchos 1 don't get you. 



No. 259 



Belding's Plover 



A. O. U. No. 280. Pagolla wilsonia beldingi Ridgway. 



Synonyms. — Wilson's Plover. Western Wilson Plover. 



Description. — Adult male in summer: Above pale grayish brown, varied by 

 paler edgings, approaching fulvous on crown and hind-neck; a short black bar across 

 forehead; a blackish loral stripe from bill to eye; a short superciliary and forehead, 

 clear to base of bill, white; a broad black band across chest terminating on sides of 

 cervix; remaining underparts pure white; wing-quills and exposed tips of tail brownish 

 dusky; shaft of first primary conspicuously white. Bill relatively large, black; feet 

 and legs flesh-colored; no colored ring around eye; iris brown. Adult male in winter 

 and female in both seasons: Similar to male in summer, but black of head and chest 

 scarcely showing — dark gray instead, or gray with a fulvous tinge. Immature: Like 

 adult in winter, but no suggestion of black in gray of head and chest. Length of adult: 

 190.5-203.2 (7.50-8.00); wing 1 14.3 (4.50); bill 21.6 (.85); tarsus 30.5 (1.20). 



Recognition Marks. — Towhee size; beach-haunting habits. Distinguished from 

 Charadrius semipalmatus, with which alone it could be confused, by its slightly larger 

 size, by its longer, stouter legs, and by its relatively immense beak — more than twice 

 as large. 



Nesting. — Not known to have bred in California. Nest: A slight hollow in 

 the beach sand, lined, or not, with bits of shell. Eggs: 3, rarely 4; pale olive-buff to 

 olive-buff, sharply, finely, and rather heavily marked with black. Av. size 35.56 x 

 26.67 (i-40 x 1.05). Season: May-June. 



Range of Pagolla wilsonia. — Coasts of southern North America and northern 

 South America. 



Range of P. w. beldingi. — Pacific Coast from Lower California and Sinaloa to 

 Peru. 



Occurrence in California. — Casual at San Diego: several ascriptions, but first 

 definite record that of June 29, 1894 (Ingersoll). 



1 South American Carrion Hawk. (Polyborus Iharus) 

 I 3 28 



