RING PLOVER. 



363 



black ; rest of the lower parts, pure white ; fore part of the 

 crown, black ; band from the upper mandible covering the 

 auriculars, also black ; back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, of a 

 brownish ash colour ; wing-quills, dusky black, marked with 

 an oval spot of white about the middle of each ; tail, olive, 

 deepening into black, and tipt with white ; legs, dull yellow ; 

 eye, dark hazel ; eyelids, yellow. 



This bird is said to make no nest, but to lay four eggs of a 

 pale ash colour, spotted with black, which she deposits on the 

 ground* The eggs of the light-coloured species, formerly 

 described, are of a pale cream colour, marked with small round 

 dots of black, as if done with a pen. 



The ring plover, according to Pennant, inhabits America 

 down to Jamaica and the Brazils ; is found in summer in 

 Greenland ; migrates from thence in autumn ; is common in 

 every part of Russia and Siberia : was found by the navigators 

 as low as Owyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands, and as light 

 coloured as those of the highest latitudes, f 



[Mr Ord adds to this description in his reprint: "After 

 writing the above I had an opportunity of examining, com- 

 paratively, two or three specimens of the European ring 

 plover which are in Mr Peale's collection. These birds 

 corresponded with the subject of this article, except in the 

 feet, and here I found a difference which is worthy of note. 

 The outer toes of both the European and the American birds 

 were united to the middle ones by a membrane of an equal 

 size ; but the inner toes of the latter were also united by a 

 smaller web, while those of the former were divided to their 

 origin. The naturalists of Europe state that the inner toes 

 of their species are thus divided. Here, then, is a diversity 

 which, if constant, would constitute a specific difference. The 

 bottoms of the toes of the present are broad as in the 

 sanderling. 



" The plover given in our fifth volume, under the name of 

 * Bewick. t Arct, Zool., p. 485. 



