100 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
The eg-g-s, small at one end and quite pointed, measure about 1.50 
inches long by about 1.08 broad. 
The food of this species consists of earth-worms, grasshoppers, 
crickets and coleopterous insects, as well as small Crustacea, whether of 
salt or fresh water, and snails. Now and then they may be seen thrust- 
ing their bills into the mud in search of some other food. During 
autumn they run about the old fields and catch an insect which the blue- 
bird has been watching with anxious care from the top of a withering 
mullein stalk. They run briskly after the plowman to pick up the 
worms that have been turned out of their burrows. Now standing on the 
grassy meadow, after a shower, you see them patting the moist ground, 
to force out its inhabitants. During winter you meet with them on 
elevated ground, or along the inargins of the rivers ; but wherever you 
observe one about to pick up its food you clearly see its body moving in 
a see-saw manner on the joints of the legs, until the former being so 
placed that the bill can reach .the ground, the object is seized, and the 
usual horizontal position is resumed.” — Audubon. 
The food-materials, with date of collection and locality, of eleven 
Killdeers examined by the writer, are given below: 
No. 
Date. 
Locality. 
Food-Materials. 
1 
April 10. 1879 
Chester county. Pa. , 
Snails and beetles. 
2 
April 30. 1879 
Chester county. Pa. 
Earth-worms. 
3 
June 18. 1879 . 
Chester county. Pa 
Beetles. 
4 
Nov. 14. 1879 
Lancaster county. Pa 
Fragments of fresh water shells. 
5 
May 15. 1880 
Chester county. Pa 
Earth-worms. 
6 
May 15, 1880 
Chester county. Pa. , 
Earth-worms and larvae. 
7 
Aug. 21, 1880 
Delaware county, Pa 
Grasshoppers and small seeds. 
8 
Dec. 13, 1881 
Chester county. Pa 
Grasshoppers. 
9 
July 31, 1883 
Chester county. Pa 
Beetles and larvae. 
10 
July 31, 1883 
Chester county, Pa. 
Beetles. 
11 
Sept. 20, 1884 
Chester county, Pa. 
Grasshoppers and seeds. 
-ffigialitis semipalmata Bonap. 
Semipalmated Plover ; Ring-neck ; Ring Plover. 
Description. 
“Small ; wings long, toes connected at base, especially the outer to the middle toe; 
forehead, throat, ring around neck (behind) and entire under parts white ; a band 
of deep black across the breast, extending around the back of neck below the white 
ring. Band from the base of bill under the eye, and wider frontal band above the 
white band black ; upper parts ashy brown ; quills brownish-black with their shafts 
white in a middle portion ; * * * shorter tertiaries edged with white ; greater 
coverts tipped with white ; middle feathers of the tail ashy-brown, with a wide sub- 
terminal band of brownish-black, and narrowly tipped with white ; two outer tail- 
feathers white, others intermediate, like the middle, but widely tipped with white ; 
bill orange-yellow at base, black terminally ; legs pale flesh color. 
‘‘‘•Female similar, but rather lighter colored. 
“Young with the black replaced by ashy-brown, the feathers of the upper parts 
bordered with paler (bill almost entirely black). Total length about 7 inches ; (ex- 
tent about 15,) bill 45. to .50 ; tarsus .95,”— .S, 15. and F.. B. of N, A. 
