Species II. C. HIATWULA* 
RING PLOVER. 
[Plate LIX. Fig. 3.] 
Arct. Zool. p. 485, No. 401. — La petit Pluvier d collier, Buff, viii., 90. — Bewick, 
i., 326.f 
In a preceding part of this work J a bird by this name has been 
figured and described, under the supposition that it was the Ring 
Plover, then in its summer dress ; but which, notwithstanding its great 
resemblance to the present, I now suspect to be a different species. 
Fearful of perpetuating error, and anxious to retract, where this may 
inadvertently have been the case, I shall submit to the consideration 
of the reader the reasons on which my present suspicions are founded. 
The present species, or true Ring Plover, and also the former, or light 
colored bird, both arrive on the seacoast of New Jersey late in April. 
The present kind continues to be seen in flocks until late in May, when 
they disappear on their way farther north ; the light colored bird remains 
during the summer, forms its nest in the sand, and generally produces 
tAvo broods in the season. Early in September the present species 
returns in flocks as before ; soon after this, the light colored kind go 
off to the south, but the other remain a full month later. European 
writers inform us, that the Ring Plover has a sharp twittering note, and 
this account agrees exactly with that of the present ; the light colored 
species, on the contrary, has a peculiarly soft and musical note, similar 
to the tone of a German flute, which it utters while running along the 
sand, with expanded tail, and hanging wings, endeavoring to decoy you 
from its nest. The present species is never seen to breed here ; and 
though I have opened great numbers of them as late as the twentieth 
of May, the eggs, which the females contained, were never larger than 
small bird-shot ; while, at the same time, the light colored kind had 
everywhere begun to lay in the little cavities which they had dug on the 
* Tringa hiaticula, in the original edition, which with Prince Musignano, we con- 
sider as a typographical error. 
f Charadrius semipalmatus, Bonaparte, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y. Vol. n., p. 
296. 
% See preceding species. 
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