38 
BIRDS OF DURHAM AND VICINITY. 
Family CHARADRIID^. 
Squatarola squatarola. Black-belli?:d I^lover. [270. 
The Black-bellied Plover, or Beetle-head, as gunners call it, is one 
of the less common shore birds seen only during its migration. I am 
told that at Hampton they generally fly low, and rarely come ashore. 
I have found several specimens in the collections I have examined. 
Charadrius dominicus. American Golden Plover. 272. 
This Plover is a regular, though scarcely an abundant, visitant 
along the coast in iMay, August, September, and October. About the 
middle of October, 1900, there v/as a flight at Hampton, from which 
several were secured. As a usual thing, gunners infrequently report 
it. It prefers lowly herbaceous marshes to sandy shores. 
Aegialitis vocifera. Killdeer. 273. 
I am assured by iMr. Went worth of Rollinsford that years ago 
Killdeers nested regularly on his farm. Mr. Turner has also told me 
that in his boyhood days they bred about the marshes near Ports- 
mouth, and that their cry, killdee, was a familiar sound. Now, they 
are infrequent spring and fall visitors, unknown to many of the 
younger generation of shore gunners. According to Mr. Shaw, a 
small flock came to Hampton some years since, with a heavy storm 
late in December, and remained through the following January and 
February. Most of the time they stayed among the rocks about 
Boar's Head though they sometimes fed in the roads. 
Aeg-ialitis semipalmata. Semipalmated Plover. 274- 
The Semipalmated, or Ring-neck Plover, as it is often called, is 
abundant on every beach, and not uncommon in suitable localities at 
considerable distances from the sea, during the latter half of August 
and early September. Their migration is at its height about the 
twenty-fifth of August. The spring wave passes us about the middle 
of May. Incessant persecution has made them wary, and while they 
ply their craft, seemingly oblivious of their surroundings, they are 
nevertheless good judges of a fair shooting distance, and rarely allow 
a man to come openly within it. Their light gray backs render them 
difficult to see against a background of sand. 
