456 BIRDS—CHARADRIIDZ, 
Adult in breeding season (rarely seen in the United States); face and entire under 
parts black; upper parts variegated with black, and white or ashy; tail barred with 
black and white; quills dusky with large white patches. Adults at other times and 
young: below white more or less shaded with gray, the throat and breast more or less 
speckled with dusky; above blackish, speckled with white or yellowish; the rump white 
with dark bars, legs dull bluish. Old birds changing show every grade, from a few 
isolated feathers on the under parts, to numerous large black patches. Length, 11-12; 
wing, 7 or more; tail, 3; bill, 1-14; tarsus, 2; middle toe and claw, 14; hind toe, 
hardly +. 
Habitat, nearly Cosmopolitan. 
Rather rare spring and fall migrant. More frequently seen on the 
lake shore than elsewhere. Dr. Kirtland says that it is sometimes seen in 
company with the Kildeer. Mr. Langdon gives it as rare in the vicinity 
of Cincinnati, where Messrs. Dury and Freeman note its occurrence in 
September. I met with a single specimen here in August, 1875. Mr. 
Oliver Davie took a specimen in May, which was in breeding plumage, 
but their spring migration ordinarily takes place in April. Both 
these specimens were solitary birds, feeding on the gravelly shores of the 
Scioto River, 2 short distance from this city. 
The Black-bellied Plover breeds in the Arctic regions, and possibly 
further south on the Pacific coast. The nest, like that of all members of 
the order, so far as known, is placed on the ground. The eggs are four, 
brownish-clay color, thickly marked with spots of brownish-black, larger 
and irregular about the greater end. They measure about 2 by 1.40 
inches. 
GENUS CHARADRIUS. Linneeus. 
Tarsi and naked tibia uniformly reticulated. 
CHARADRIUS FULVUS Gm. 
var, VIRGINICUS, (Borck.) Cs. 
Golden Plover. 
Charadrius pluviatis, KIRPLAND, Ohio Golog. Surv., 1838, 165, 184. 
Charadrius virginieus, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 368; Reprint, 1861, 10. 
Charadrius fulvus, var. virginicus, WHEATON, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric, Rep. for 
1874, 572; Reprint, 1875, 12.—LaNGpDoN, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 14; Revised 
List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 181; Reprint, 15. 
Charadrius fuleus, GMELIN, Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 687. 
Charadrius pluvialis, WILSON, Am. Orn., vii, 1813, 71. 
Charadrius virginicus, ‘‘ BoRCH, Mus. Berol.”’ 
Charadrius fulvus, var. virginicus, CouES, Key, 1872, 243. 
Plumage speckled above, and in the breeding season black below, asin the last species, 
but much of the speckling bright yellow, and the rump and upper tail-coverts like the 
