BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, CHARADRUIS SQUATAROLA. 



ALLAN HROOKS. 



This species is also known in America 

 by the name of Bull-head, and in England 

 as the Gray plover. This is more apt, as 

 the bird is seldom found in perfect summer 

 dress when the under parts are black; 

 young birds, and those in fall and winter 

 plumage lacking this character. 



It can always be told from the golden 

 plovers by the presence of a rudimentary 

 hind toe, all the 3 species of golden plovers 

 having but 3 toes. 



At a distance the color of the axillaries, 

 or feathers at base of, and underneath the 

 wing is a sure character. In the European 



These plovers breed very far North, but 

 many individuals remain with us through- 

 out the year — chiefly young birds, and 

 crippled, or feeble adults. These, when 

 seen by many ornithologists are taken as 

 evidence of the species breeding in the 

 locality. Too great care cannot be exer- 

 cised in the identification of the eggs of 

 nearly all the Limicolae, or shore birds. 



Like most birds of this class the gray 

 plover arrives early in the fall, in my ex- 

 perience adults arriving first, in full breed- 

 ing plumage, though worn. These are prob- 

 ably birds whose nests have been destroyed 



BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 



golden plover these are white. In both 

 the American and Asiatic golden plovers 

 they are a smoky gray, but in the present 

 species they are black, and very conspicu- 

 ous when the bird is flying, or when it 

 stretches its wings above its back, as all 

 plovers do. 



The gray plover is more essentially a 

 shore bird than the golden, and is often 

 found associating with the smaller sand- 

 pipers and plovers. It is a curious sight to 

 see one towering head and body over a 

 flock of least or semipalmated sandpipers, 

 the whole flock taking wing together when 

 alarmed. 



when it was too late for them to breed 

 again. They generally arrive late in July 

 or early in August, but the bulk of the 

 species do not arrive in Southern Canada 

 and Northern United States till late in Sep- 

 tember. The Northward migration pa->es 

 the same region toward the end of May. 



They are easily tolled or decoyed by an 

 imitation of their shrill whistle. I have 

 brought a bird down in this manner into 

 a rough stubble field — the last place, al- 

 most, where a plover would ordinarily set- 

 tle. Many boy hunters learn to imitate the 

 whistle of this bird and thus kill many of 

 them. 



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