RING PLOVER. 
5 
194. CHARADHIUS SEMIPALMATUS, BONAPARTE. 
THING A HIATICULA, WILSON. — RING PLOVER. 
WILSON, PLATE LIX. FIG. III. 
A bird by this name has just been described, under the 
supposition that it was the ring* plover in its summer 
dress ; but which, notwithstanding its great resemblance 
to the present, I now suspect to be a different species. 
Fearful of perpetuating error, and anxious to retract, 
where this may inadvertently have been the case, I 
shall submit to the consideration of the reader the 
reasons on which my present suspicions are founded. 
The present species, or true ring plover, and also the 
former, or light coloured bird, both arrive on the sea 
coast of New Jersey late in April. The present kind 
continues to be seen in flocks until late in May, when 
they disappear, on their way farther north ; the light 
coloured bird remains during the summer, forms its 
nest in the sand, and generally produces two brood in 
the season. Early in September the present species 
returns in flocks, as before ; soon after this, the light 
coloured kind go off to the south, but the other remain 
a full month later. European writers inform us, that 
the ring plover has a sharp twittering note ; and this 
account agrees exactly with that of the present : the 
light coloured species, on the contrary, has a peculiarly 
soft and musical note, similar to the tone of a German 
flute, which it utters while running along the sand, 
with expanded tail and hanging wings, endeavouring 
to decoy you from its nest. The present species is 
never seen to breed here ; and, though I have opened 
great numbers of them as late as the 20th of May, the 
eggs which the females contained were never larger 
than small bird shot ; while, at the same time, the light 
coloured kind had every where begun to lay in the 
little cavities which they had dug in the sand on the 
beach. These facts being considered, it seems difficult 
