200 
BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 
out in pursuit. The young leave the nest almost immediately after they are 
hatched, and should one appi’oach them the parents become very clamorous, 
and fly around until they are assured of the safety of their brood, when they 
take a long flight, and disappear for a time. Unless during the breeding 
season, they are exceedingly shy ; but their anxiety for their young renders 
them forgetful of the danger which they incur in approaching man. The 
young, when two or three weeks old, run with great celerity, and squat in 
perfect silence when apprehensive of danger. When they are able to fly, 
several families unite, and betake themselves to the sea-shore, where other 
flocks gradually arrive, until at length, on the approach of cold weather, 
almost all of them begin to move southward. Although the great body of 
these Plovers pass beyond the limits of the United States, some remain on 
the shores of the Floridas during winter. In their habits they are more 
maritime than the Golden Plovers, which, when migrating, generally 
advance over the land. 
The flight of this bird is swift, strong, and well sustained. When roam- 
ing over large sand-bars, they move incompact bodies, whirling round, and 
suddenly veering, so as alternately to exhibit their upper and lower parts. 
At this time old and young are intermixed, and many of the former have 
lost the black so conspicuous on the neck and breast in summer. During 
winter, or as long as they frequent the sea-shore, they feed on marine 
insects, worms, and small shell-fish ; and when they are in the interior, on 
grasshoppers and other insects, as well as berries of various kinds, on which 
they fatten so as to become tolerably good eating. 
This species is known in Pennsylvania by the name of Whistling Field 
Plover, suggested by the loud and modulated cries which it emits during the 
love-season. In the Eastern States, as well as in Kentucky, it is called the 
Bull-head ; but in the South its most common appellation is Black-bellied 
Plover. I have seen it, though sparingly, along the shores of the Ohio, 
probably during its passage from the north. 
As its habits agree with those of the Plovers generally, and its form is 
similar to that of the Golden Plover and other species, the only difference 
being the presence of a rudimentary hind toe, it was scarcely necessary to 
distinguish it generically from Charadrius, as many recent authors have 
done. 
Tringa Helvetica and Squatarola, Linn. Syst. Nat., p. 250, 252. 
Black- bellied Plover, Charadrius helveticus, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 41. 
Summer. 
Charadrius helveticus, Bonap. Syn., p. 298. 
Grey Lapwing, Vandlus melanoyasler, Swains.and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p.370. 
Black-bellied or Swiss Plover, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 26. 
Black-bellied Plover, Charadrius helveticus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 280. 
