600 
SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS —LIMICOLJE. 
brown with white or yellow edging and notching. Axillars and lining of wings ashy-gray as 
in summer ; but, as in Squatarola, the chief difference is in the under parts, which have no black, 
being grayish-white, clearest on chin, belly, and crissum, the throat and sides of head streaked, 
the breast and sides of neck and body mottled, with dark grayish-brown. Legs not perfectly 
black. This is the state in which the golden plover is generally seen in the U. S., though 
beautiful black-bellied birds may be found late in the vernal migration. N. Am. at large ; 
breeds in the Arctic regions ; passes N. and S. in great waves, in spring and fall, affording fine 
sport at the latter season. Eggs 4, similar to those of Squatarola, smaller, and usually paler 
clay color, sometimes whitish; markings of same tone and pattern; size 1.80-2.00 X 1-35- 
1.40. This is the usual ''field plover" of sportsmen; a well-known and highly-esteemed 
game-bird. 
582, C. d. ful'vus. (Lat. fulinis, yellowish.) Asiatic Golden Plover. Similar ; more suffused 
with yellow on head, especially along the superciliary stripe ; smaller ; length about 9.50 ; 
wing 6.50 ; tail 2.60; tarsus 1.60 ; middle toe and claw 1.10; bill 0.95. Alaska, from Asia. 
583. C. pluvia'lis. (Lat. pliivialis, rainy.) European Golden Plover. Like C. dominicus, 
and of same size. Lining of wings white. Greenland, from Europe. 
218. ^GIA'LITES. (Gr. alyiaXiTrjs, a doer by the sea.) RiNG Plovers. A genus not easy to 
define with precision, owing to the difterences in details of form which the numerous species 
present. Best distinguished from Charadrius by color : upper parts not speckled ; loM cr never 
extensively black. Bars or rings of color about head and neck. Sexes usually distinguishable, 
though similar. Tarsus not twice as long as middle toe without claw. Plates of front of tarsus 
tending to enlarge in two or three special rows, instead of uniform reticulation. We have 5 
perfectly good N. American species, a variety of one of these (?), and two European estrays. 
Analysis of Species (adult males). 
Bill entirely black. 
Rump chestnut ; two black bands on throat and breast vociferus 584 
Rump plain; one black band on breast. Bill stout wilsonius 585 
Rump plain; no complete black bars on breast. Bill slender nivosus 591 
Bill orange or yellow, black-tipped ; or black with orange at base. 
Semipalmate; web between inner and middle toe evident, that between outer and middle reaching 
to end of second joint of middle. 
Heavy black bands on head and neck ; colored ring round eye semipalmatus 586 
No evident web between inner and middle toe ; that between outer and middle only reaching to end 
of first joint of middle. 
Heavy black bands on head and neck ; one on side of head. 
No colored ring round eye. Wing about 5.00 hiaticula 589 
A colored ring round eye ; wing under 4.50 curonicus 590 
No black band on side of head ; colored ring round eye. 
Ring around neck incomplete vielodus 587 
Ring around neck complete circumcinctus 588 
5g4 JE,. voci'ferus. (Lat. vociferus ^ voice-bearing, noisy. Fig. 419.) Kildeer Plover. $ 9 , 
adult : Above, grayish-brown, with an olive shade, and in high plumage a slight bronzy lustre. 
Kump and upper tail-coverts bright-colored, very variable in tint, from tawny or orange-brown 
to cinnamon-brown or chestnut. Foreliead with a white band from eye to eye, more or less 
prolonged as a superciliary streak, and a black band above it. A white collar around hind 
neck, continuous with white of the throat. A black collar around back of neck, continuous 
with a black pectoral band. Back of the latter a black pectoral belt. Thus the fore-parts are 
encircled with one complete black ring, behind which is a black half-ring on breast, before 
which is a complete white ring. A white stripe over and behind eye ; a dusky stripe below 
eye. Under parts entirely pure white, except the two pectoral belts. Primary quills blackish ; 
a white space on the outer webs of most of them, forming an oblique series, and a longer white 
space on their inner webs. Secondaries mostly white, but with black areas in increasing size 
from within outward. Long inner secondaries, or tertiaries, like the back. Tail-feathers singu- 
