KILDEER PLOVER. 



75 



mer they generally descend to the sea shore, in small flocks, sel- 

 dom more than ten or twelve being seen together. They are then 

 more serene and silent, as well as difficult to be approached. 



The Kildeer is ten inches long, and twenty inches in extent; 

 the bill is black; frontlet, chin and ring round the neck white; 

 fore part of the crown, and auriculars from the bill backwards^ 

 blackish olive; eyelids bright scarlet; eye very large and of a full 

 black; from the center of the eye backwards a stripe of white; 

 round the lower part of the neck is a broad band of black; below 

 that a band of white, succeeded by another rounding band or cres- 

 cent of black; rest of the lower parts pure white; crown and hind 

 head light olive brown; back, scapulars and wing coverts olive 

 brown, skirted with brownish yellow; primary quills black, streak- 

 ed across the middle with white; bastard wing tipt with white; 

 greater coverts broadly tipt with white; rump and tail coverts 

 orange; tail tapering, dull orange, crossed near the end with a 

 broad bar of black, and tipt with orange, the two middle feathers 

 near an inch longer than the adjoining ones; legs and feet a pale 

 light clay color. The tertials, as usual in this tribe, are very long, 

 reaching nearly to the tips of the primaries ; exterior toe joined by 

 a membrane to the middle one, as far as the first joint. 



