98 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
Detwiller has observed this species in Lehigh and Northampton counties 
as a rare visitant, and Mr. Thomas S. Gillin reports it to be an irregular 
migrant in Montgomery county. This plover has also been noted 
either as a straggler or irregular migrant in other 'fcarts of the state by 
the following gentlemen: Dr. Van Fleet, Clinton county ; H. A. Ting- 
ley, M. D., Susquehanna county; D. F. Keller, Berks county; George 
Spencer Morris, Philadelphia county and W. H. Buller, Lancaster 
county. The Black-bellied Plove is mentioned by Audubon, Wilson 
and other writers as breeding in Pennsylvania. It does not now breed 
in this state, but retires to the dreary Arctic regions to rear its young. 
This species feeds on beetles, grasshoppers, worms, etc.; also, occa¬ 
sionally, on different kinds of seeds and berries. 
Charadrius dominicus Mull. 
American Golden Plover ; Field Plover ; Bull-head Plover. 
Description ( Plate 82). 
This bird, very similar to C. squatarola, can easily be recognized by the absence 
of the hind toe and the grayish or white axillars ; the dusky or blackish upper parts 
are usually more brightly spotted with golden-yellow. 
Habitat .—Arctic America, migrating southward throughout North and South 
America to Patagonia 
The Golden Plover is said to be a rather common and regular migrant 
in the vicinity of Lake Erie, especially in the fall, when, frequently, 
large numbers of these birds are shot in the meadows and fields about 
Erie city. This bird is found generally throughout the commonwealth, 
but is very irregular in its visitations, except in the region about the 
great lake to the north of Erie county. 
I have never seen the Golden Plover in eastern Pennsylvania during 
the spring migrations, and as an autumnal visitant it is uncertain. For 
several consecutive seasons none will be observed in certain districts; 
the following season, however, the birds will be found abundantly in 
these same districts. The largest flight of Golden Plovers that I ever 
saw in this section (Chester county) was in the fall of 1880, when flocks 
of from fifty to one hundred were quite plentiful about the plowed 
grounds and grass fields in the neighborhood of West Chester. Mr. 
Francis Jacobs, of West Chester, informs me that about the year 1860 
Bull-head* Plovers were abundant in the Great Valley and in the 
vicinity of West Chester, where, in September, they came in flocks of hun¬ 
dreds and literally covered the fields where wheat had been sown. “ In 
those days the wheat was sown, as but few farmers had drills.” Mr. Jacobs 
states that he has often killed fifteen or twenty at one shot, and, m 
company with his brother, has shot two hundred or more in one day. 
* The name Bull-head is given to both the Golden and Black-bellied Plovers. I suppose the birds men¬ 
tioned by my friend Mr, Jacobs to have been Golden Plovers (Charadrius dominicus). 
