IG4 
PRZECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOLrE. 
iEgialitis alexandrina nivosa. 
THE SNOWY PLOVER. 
JEgialitis nivosa, Cassin, in Baird's B. F. Am. 1858, 696 (San Francisco, Cal.). — Baird, Cat. F. 
Am. B. 1858, no. 509. 
JEgialitis cantianus, var. nivosus, liiimw. Am. Fat. VIII. 1874, 109. — Coues, Check List, 1873, 
App. p. 135, no. 401. 
AEgialitis cantianus nivosus, Ridgw. Fom. F. Am. B. 1882, no. 521. — Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 
1882, no. 591. 
AEgialitis cantianus, Coues, Key, 1872, 245. 
Hab. Western Province of Forth America, both coasts of Middle America, and Western South 
America as far as Chili ; Cuba ? 1 
Sp. Char. Bill slender, wholly deep black, as long as the middle toe. Adult male : Forehead, 
superciliary region, indistinct nuchal collar, and entire lower parts, pure white ; a band across the 
fore part of the crown, auriculars, and transverse patch on each side of the breast, black. Upper 
Summer plumage. 
parts, rather light brownish gray, the crown and occiput usually tinged with light reddish buff. 
Primaries, dusky with white shafts, the inner quills marked with white ; inner secondaries almost 
1 A. tenuirostris, Lawr. (Ann. Lyc. F. Y. VII. Feb. 1862, p. 455), presumably the same species. 
The description is as follows : — 
“Female: Crown, occiput, and back cinereous, the feathers with grayish-white margins; wing-coverts 
somewhat darker than the back, the ends of the larger coverts white, forming a transverse bar on the 
wing ; primaries umber-brown with the inner webs lighter, except at the end, and having the shafts 
white ; the secondaries are of the same color as the primaries, and tipped with white ; tertiaries paler and 
largely marked with white; scapulars ashy brown, lighter on the inner webs, and having both webs 
crossed with rather obsolete narrow brown bars ; the middle upper tail-coverts are pale ochreous brown, 
the lateral ones white ; the four central tail-feathers are light ochreous brown at the base, becoming darker 
toward their ends ; the other tail-feathers are white, those next the central ones being pale ochreous at 
the end ; front, a line over the eye, cheeks, a collar on the hind neck, and entire under plumage, pure 
white ; a semi-collar of ashy brown on each side of the upper part of the breast ; bill black, with a small 
space at the base of the under mandible of dull orange ; irides black ; tarsi and toes purplish black. 
“ Length about 6f in. ; wing, 3£ ; tail, ; bill from front, £ ; tarsi •}£. 
“ Habitat, Cuba. 
“ This species is allied to A. mcloclus, but is rather smaller ; the bill is longer, depressed at the base, 
and regularly tapering to the end, where it is comparatively sharp ; in the latter it is quite obtuse and 
different in form ; there is less white on the quills, with more on the tail, and the tarsi are longer than 
those of A. mcloclus." 
The above description, measurements and all, accords in every respect with the adult female of JE. 
nivosa, and is probably of a specimen of that species. But a single specimen was captured, this being a 
female caught with a net while sitting on her three eggs ; the time being July, and the-place Guantanamo, 
on the south coast of the eastern part of the island. 
