362 
JEG1ALIT1S W1LS0N1US. 
Young. Similar to the adult female, but much more reddish, especially on hand across breast. Iris, brown, bill, 
black, and feet, yellow, in all stages. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Known from all other Plovers having a single ring around neck, by the comparatively large size of the bill which is not 
only thick but is nearly as long as the head. Distributed in summer along the Eastern coast as far north as New Jersey. 
Winters on the Florida Keys and Bahamas. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Average measurements of specimens from Florida. Length, 7'85; stretch, 15'00; wing, 5 75; tail, L75; bill, - 88; tar¬ 
sus, l - 12. Longest specimen, 8 - 15; greatest extent of wing, 16‘00; longest wing, 5'90; tail, 2‘00; bill, 105; tarsus, P28. 
Shortest specimen, 750; smallest extent of wing, 14’00; shortest wing, 4‘65; tail, 1'45; bill, ‘70; tarsus, 105. 
DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 
Eggs, placed on the ground in a slight depression of the soil, on a few bits of shells, etc.; three in number, pyriform in 
shape, creamy in color, finely and thickly lined and spotted with black, but there are more lines than spots. Dimensions 
from 1-OOx P35 to 1’05 x P40. 
HABITS. 
The northern end of Key West is comparatively barren as the lime rock which forms 
the foundation of the entire key, has here only a scant supply of soil over it and, conse¬ 
quently, there is hut very little vegetation. Between this section and the southern, or 
more fertile, end of the key, is a low-lying tract which can be flooded with sea water and 
which, in fact, some years ago, formed, in a great measure, natural salt ponds, but they 
then only covered a limited surface. Now, however, square, shallow basins have been dug 
over a greater extent, and used for the manufacture of salt, the water being let into them 
and allowed to evaporate in the sun, leaving the salt. These square basins are separated 
from one another by dykes along which one can walk and where various species of shore birds 
alight. Among them are large quantities of Plovers of the genus of which I am writing, 
and I have, with a single discharge of my gun, killed three species, viz., Wilson’s, Piping, 
and Ringneek; and the day when I took the first and only specimen of the Mountain Plover 
ever shot east on the Mississippi, I secured, in all, six species of the genus JEgialitis in 
about an hour, a feat which I will venture to say, will seldom be repeated. 
While here, I paid considerable attention to the habits of Wilson’s Plover, then in 
the winter dress, but did not observe that they differed strikingly from other small Plov¬ 
ers, excepting that, perhaps, the flight is a little heavier; but when I found them breeding 
on Indian River, a few years later, I found that they had some characteristic habits. 
Early in May I observed the males in pursuit of the females and alighting beside them, 
at the same time uttering a series of peculiar, sharp, abruptly given whistles. Confident 
that they were breeding, a few days later I visited the beach ridge, just north of Cape Ca¬ 
naveral, to look for the eggs, but although there were several pairs of birds circling about, 
it was not until I happened to see a female run from the nest, that I chanced to discover her 
three eggs. These were placed in a small hollow scratched in the sand, on some bits of 
shell and fish bones gathered by the birds, but in a little open space, surrounded by sea 
purslane, a low plant which grows plentifully about; and all that I afterward found, were 
placed in a similar situation. The birds ran nimbly about or circled overhead, so that it 
was impossible to decide just where a nest was situated, and the males were constantly 
