CHARADRIUS RUB ID US* 
RUDDY PLOVER. 
[Plate LXIII. Fig. 3.] 
Arct. Zool. No. 404.— Lath. Syn. in., p. 195, No. 2.— Turt. Syst. p. 415. 
Tins bird is frequently found in company with the Sanderling, lvliich, 
except in color, it very much resembles. It is generally seen on the 
seacoast of New Jersey in May and October, on its way to and from its 
breeding place in the north. It runs with great activity along the edge 
of the flowing or retreating waves, on the sands, picking up the small 
bivalve shell-fish, which supply so many multitudes of the Plover and 
Sandpiper tribes. 
I should not be surprised if the present species turn out hereafter to 
be the Sanderling itself, in a different dress. Of many scores which I 
examined, scarce two were alike ; in some the plumage of the back was 
almost plain ; in others the black plumage was just shooting out. This 
was in the month of October. Naturalists, however, have considered it 
as a separate species ; but have given us no further, particulars, than 
that " in Hudson's Bay it is known by the name of Mistckaychekiska- 
weshish;"f a piece of information certainly very instructive! 
The Ruddy Plover is eight inches long, and fifteen in extent ; the bill 
is black, an inch long, and straight ; sides of the neck, and whole upper 
parts, speckled largely with white, black and ferruginous ; the feathers 
being centered with black, tipped with white, and edged with ferrugi- 
nous, giving the bird a very motley appearance ; belly and vent pure 
white ; wing quills black, crossed with a band of white ; lesser coverts 
whitish, centred with pale olive, the first two or three rows black ; two 
middle tail feathers black ; the rest pale cinereous, edged with white ; 
legs and feet black ; toes bordered with a very narrow membrane. On 
dissection, both males and females varied in their colors and markings. 
* This is the preceding species in perfect summer plumage, 
f Latham. 
(370) 
