The Black-bellied Plover 
No. 254 
Black-bellied Plover 
A. O. U. No. 270. Squatarola squatarola (Linnaeus). 
Synonyms.— Beetle-head. Bull-head. Ox-eye. Helvetian Plover. 
Description. — Adult in summer: In general black (below), white (laterally 
and circum-posteriorly), and black-and-white (above). Lower eyelid, forehead, sides 
of crown, neck, and breast, flanks, lower belly, crissum, lining of wings, and upper 
tail-coverts white, the last-named lightly barred with blackish; sides of head and re¬ 
maining underparts sooty black to jet black; axillars sooty black; above chiefly black, 
varied by gray (hair-brown) and white tips, the gray prevailing on the fore-crown, 
gray and white on the wing-coverts; primaries dusky brown with large basal areas of 
white, and distal portion of shaft (increasing inwardly) white; tail black and white 
barred. Bill and feet black. Adult in winter: Quite different. Black of underparts 
wanting, except on axillars, white instead; the white pure on chin and throat, lower 
breast, belly, crissum, flanks, and lining of wings; elsewhere finely streaked or mottled 
or shaded with dusky, above grayish dusky, spotted and tipped with white. In respect 
to this spotting interminable differences occur, but a finely checkered pattern prevails. 
Immature: Similar to adult in winter, but head and neck streaked and back spotted 
with yellowish buff. Length 266.7-304.8 (10.50-12.00); wing 203.2 (8.00); tail 76.2 
(3.00); bill 30 (1.18); tarsus 47 (1.85). 
Recognition Marks. —Killdeer size or larger; black and white in broad design, 
and without distinct yellow above. (The buffy spotting which appears on the upper 
plumage of immature birds is, however, to be particularly remembered. Reports of 
“Golden Plovers” seen in California usually simmer down to young Black-bellies). 
Below black (in summer) or nearly white (in winter or young); axillars black at any 
season. Similar to succeeding species but larger; bill and head larger; presence of hind 
toe distinctive. 
Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: On the ground, or a hollow 
in tundra moss. Eggs: 3 or 4; light or dark buffy olive, heavily speckled and spotted 
with dark browns or blacks. Av. size 51.8 x 36.3 (2.04 x 1.43). 
General Range. —Nearly cosmopolitan, but chiefly in the Northern Hemisphere, 
breeding far north and migrating south in winter; in America to the West Indies, 
Paraguay, and Peru. 
Distribution in California. —Common spring and fall migrant; less common 
winter resident, coastwise. Occurs irregularly in the interior, even in winter. 
Authorities.—Gambel (Squatarola Helvetica), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 
2, i., 1849, p. 220 (coast of Calif.); Dwight, Auk, vol. xvii., 1900, p. 383 (plumages and 
molt); Cooke, U. S. Dept. Agric., Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 35, 1910, p. 78 (distr. and migr.); 
Bowles and Howell, Condor, vol. xiv., 1912, p. 10 (Santa Barbara; migr. dates). 
IN THE APPRECIATION of Nature everything depends upon the 
point of view. Thus, our attitude toward the Black-bellied Plover may 
be that of the artist, the sportsman, the farmer, the economist, or the 
scientist. It may be each of these in turn, or all together, or it may be 
something better still. It may be the friendly, sympathetic, penetrative 
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