8 
CHARADRIUS WILSONIUS. 
seasons, and had never seen them before. How long they 
remain on onr coast, and where they winter, we are 
unable to say. From the circumstance of the oviduct 
of the female being greatly enlarged, and containing 
an egg half grown, apparently within a week of being 
ready for exclusion, we concluded that they breed 
there. Their favourite places of resort appear to be 
the dry sand flats on the sea shore. They utter an 
agreeable piping note. 
This species is seven inches and three quarters in 
length, and fifteen and a half in extent ; the bill is 
black, stout, and an inch long', the upper mandible 
projecting considerably over the lower ; front, white, 
passing on each side to the middle of the eye above, 
and bounded by a band of black of equal breadth ; lores, 
black ; eyelids, white ; eye, large and dark ; from the 
middle of the eye backwards the stripe of white becomes 
duller, and extends for half an inch ; the crown, hind 
head, and auriculars, are drab olive ; the chin, throat, 
and sides of the neck, for an inch, pure white, passing 
quite round the neck, and narrowing to a point behind ; 
the upper breast below this is marked with a broad 
band of jet black ; the rest of the lower parts, pure 
white ; upper parts pale olive drab ; along the edges of 
the auriculars and hind head, the plumage, where it 
joins the white, is stained with raw terra sienna ; all 
the plumage is darkest in the centre ; the tertials are 
fully longer than the primaries, the latter brownish 
black, the shafts and edges of some of the middle ones 
white ; secondaries and greater coverts, slightly tipped 
with white ; the legs are of a pale flesh colour ; toes 
bordered with a narrow edge ; claws and ends of the 
toes, black ; the tail is even, a very little longer than 
the wings, and of a blackish olive colour, with the 
exception of the two exterior feathers, which are 
whitish, but generally the two middle ones only are 
seen. 
The female differs in having no black on the forehead, 
lores, or breast, those parts being pale olive. 
