Plate CCXX. Male and Female.
Bill scarcely half the length of the head, orange, with the end black;
upper parts pale brownish-grey, lower part of forehead, sides of the
face, and all the lower parts white; a black band across the upper
part of the forehead, and a ring of the same on the lower part of the
neck, broad on the sides, but narrow above and below, where it is
formed merely by the tips of some of the feathers; above this is a
white band on the hind neck; primaries dusky; a white band on the
wing, narrow on the outer primaries, and enlarging so as to include
the whole of some of the inner secondaries; secondary coverts also
tipped with white; tail white, all the feathers, except the lateral,
dusky toward the end. Young paler, the feathers of the upper parts
edged with faint brown and yellowish; the black bands wanting.
_Male_, 7-1/2, 15-1/2.
From Texas, along the whole coast, to the Magdeleine Islands, Gulf of
St Lawrence, breeding everywhere. Common. Great numbers spend the
winter from South Carolina to the mouths of the Mississippi.
Ring Plover, Charadrius Hiaticula, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. v. p.
30.
Charadrius melodus, Ord., Bonap. Syn. p. 296.
Piping Ring Plover, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 18.
Piping Plover, Charadrius melodus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p.
154; v. v. p. 578.
GENUS II. APHRIZA, Aud. SURF-BIRD.
Bill a little shorter than the head, rather stout, compressed,
tapering, straightish, being recurvate in a slight degree; upper
mandible with the dorsal line straight, and a little declinate as far
as the middle, then concave, and towards the end convex, the nasal
grooves extending to near the end, the ridge rather broad and
flattened, the tip compressed and bluntish; lower mandible with the
angle rather long and narrow, the dorsal line ascending, and slightly
convex, the sides grooved for half their length, convex toward the
end, the tip narrowed, but blunt. Nostrils subbasal, linear, near the
margin. Head rather small, ovate, rounded in front; neck of ordinary
length; body rather full. Feet of moderate length, rather stout; tibia
bare at the lower part, and reticulated; tarsus roundish, with small
angular scales all round, those on the fore part larger; toes four,
with numerous scutella, the first very small, and placed higher, the
anterior toes free to the base, distinctly margined on both edges,
flat beneath, the inner considerably shorter than the outer. Claws
rather small, curved, compressed, blunted. Plumage full, soft, rather
dense, on the neck and lower parts blended. Wings very long, narrow,
and pointed; first primary longest, inner secondaries much elongated.
Tail rather short, even, of twelve moderately broad feathers. Name
from [Greek: Aphros], foam; and [Greek: xaô], to live.