294 
GOLDEN PLOVLn? 
the long tertials, the yellow runs round, tipping the 
extremity of each feather ; on the rump and upper 
tail-coverts, they almost, and in some instances 
do, cross the feather, assuming the form of diago- 
nal bars ; the quills are clove-brown, with white 
shafts ; the axillary feathers pure w hite ;* tail hair- 
brown, the tint becoming paler towards the outside, 
and cut into with triangular markings, which al- 
most meet at the shaft. In the female the black 
is not so intense, and is partially mixed with white. 
In the w'inter dress, the upper parts of the plumage 
are nearly similar to that of summer, the yellow 
tint spreading more uniformly over the cheeks and 
sides of the neck ; beneath, the throat, vent, and 
under tail-coverts, are white, but the throat, breast, 
belly, and vent, are a tint of ash-grey, or greyish 
wood-brown, each feather having a darker centre, 
and the whole tinted over with king’s or Indian 
yellow ; the bill black ; legs dark grey. The inter- 
mediate states of plumage in which they are met 
with in autumn, are often very beautiful, the under 
parts being marbled with black, white, and pale 
king’s yellow, which blend softly together. Total 
length from ten and a-half to eleven inches. The 
true S. Virginianus is under these dimensions ; but 
we possess specimens, said to be from America, in 
every way agreeing with the latter bird, having 
the hair-brown, instead of the pure white axillary 
feathers, which are fully eleven inches in length. 
* The axillary feathers in C. pluvialis are pure white ; in 
S. Virginianus, hair-brown ; and in S. cinerea, black. 
