Chapter C: L. Whittle (1928) has suggested the following theory, as to the (2)

This species sometimes associates in large flocks, but more
often is seen singly, or in pairs, feeding on mud flats
and along the sea beaches. It is a wary bird. Arriving in
spring (September) or early summer in the southern portions
of the continent it becomes widely distributed, but seems
to restrict itself mainly to the seashore. However, it
does wander inland at times, having been recorded, for
example, from the midlands of Tasmania. It leaves Australia
apparently in March or April (autumn) on the northern
flight to its breeding haunts.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Cosmopolitan.

_Breeding range._--The breeding range of the black-bellied plover in North America is confined to the Arctic coast north to Alaska (Wainwright, Point Barrow, Colville River delta, Barter Island, Collinson Point, and probably Demarcation Point); northern Mackenzie (Cape Bathurst and probably Cape Kellett); Victoria Land (Taylor Island); and Franklin (Fury Point and Melville Peninsula), East to Franklin (Melville Peninsula); possibly Keewatin (Cape Fullerton); and possibly Greenland (Sutherland Island). South to possibly Keewatin (Cape Fullerton); Mackenzie (probably Bernard Harbor, Colville Hills, and Franklin Bay); and Alaska (Hooper Bay). West to Alaska (Hooper Bay and Wainwright).

In common with several other shore birds, nonbreeding specimens of this species are frequently found during the summer months at points far south of the breeding grounds. At this season they have been taken or observed in Maine (Western Egg Rock); Massachusetts (Monomoy Island, Marthas Vineyard, and Harvard); New York (Quogue, Freeport, Rockaway, Long Beach, and Geneva); New Jersey (Tuckerton, Great Bay, and Absecon Bay); Ohio (Bay Point); Virginia (Cobb Island and Cape Charles region); South Carolina (Mount Pleasant, Magnolia Beach, and White Point Swash); Florida (Fort De Soto, Amelia Island, Key West, Fernandina, and Daytona Beach); Alabama (Dauphin Island); Louisiana (Breton Island); Texas (Corpus Christi); Jamaica (Port Henderson); and the Galapagos Islands.

In the Palaearctic region it breeds from the eastern tundras of Arctic Europe eastward throughout Arctic Asia to Kamchatka and on Kolguev and the Siberian Islands.

_Winter range._--The American winter range extends north to Washington (Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Dungeness Spit); Texas (Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Rockport, and Matagorda); Louisiana (Breton Islands); Alabama (Dauphin Island); and Virginia (Wallops Island). East to Virginia (Wallops Island and Sandy Island); North Carolina (Pea Island and Southport); South Carolina (Mount Pleasant and Port Royal); Georgia (Darien, Cumberland, and St. Marys); Florida (Amelia Island, Fort George, Seabreeze, Mosquito Inlet, Lake Okeechobee, Miami, and Upper Matecumbe Key); the Bahama Islands (Abaco, Eleuthera, Watling, Acklin, and Great Inagua); Haiti (Monte Christi); probably French Guiana (Cayenne); and Brazil (Cajetuba and the Amazon region). South to Brazil (Amazon region); and Peru (Callao). West to Peru (Callao, Chimbote, and Tumbez); Ecuador (Bay of Santa Elena); the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle); Colombia (Cartagena); probably Costa Rica (mouth of the Martina River); probably Guatemala (Chiapam); Oaxaca (San Mateo); Lower California (San Jose del Cabo, La Paz, and San Geronimo Island); California (Coronado, Wilmington, Santa Cruz Island, Los Banos, San Francisco, and mouth of Eel River); Oregon (Newport); and Washington (Point Chehalis and Strait of Juan de Fuca).

Three specimens at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in December, 1872, constitute the only winter record for that region.

In the eastern hemisphere it winters from the coasts of southern Europe and Asia to southern Africa, Madagascar, the Seychelles, and Australia.

_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are: Pennsylvania, Neville Island, April 26; New Jersey, Atlantic City, April 27, Cape May, April 30, and Ocean City, May 5; New York, Montauk Point Light, April 30, Great South Bay, May 1, and Long Beach, May 2; Rhode Island, South Auburn, April 23, and Newport, May 9; Massachusetts, Cape Cod, April 19, Monomoy Island, April 22, and Billingsgate, April 27; Nova Scotia, Pictou, May 17; Missouri, Courtney, April 1, and Concordia, April 19; Illinois, Hennepin, April 2, and Rantoul, April 16; Indiana, Knox County, March 30; Ohio, Oberlin, April 24; Michigan, Forestville, May 2; Ontario, Toronto, May 11, and Oshawa, May 14; Iowa, Keokuk, April 22, Sioux City, May 8, and New Hampton, May 12; Wisconsin, Racine, April 14, and Leeds Center, April 17; Minnesota, Heron Lake, April 21, and Hutchinson, May 7; Nebraska, Vesta, April 21, and Lincoln, May 10; South Dakota, Pitrodie, May 1, and Vermilion, May 3; North Dakota, Rice Lake, May 5, Bathgate, May 9, and Harrisburg, May 10; Manitoba, Margaret, May 5, and Whitewater, May 20; Saskatchewan, Wiseton, May 4, and Indian Head, May 9; Mackenzie, Fort Resolution, June 2; Colorado, Denver, May 11, and Loveland, May 14; Utah, Provo, May 11; Alberta, Camrose, May 1, Sturgeon River, May 12, Tofield, May 19, Veteran, May 22, and Fort Chipewyan, May 23; British Columbia, Comox, April 23, and Courtenay, April 24; Yukon, Dawson, May 20; and Alaska, Kuiu Island, May 3, Fort Kenai, May 6, Hooper Bay, May 9, and mouth of the Yukon River, May 12.

Last dates of spring departure are: Panama, mouth of the Rio Venado, March 27; Bahama Islands, Andros, April 14; Green Cay, April 29, and Nassau, April 28; Florida, St. Marks, May 8, New Smyrna, May 14, Pensacola, May 16, Daytona Beach, May 24, and Cedar Keys, May 27; Alabama, Dauphin Island, May 19; Georgia, Savannah, May 13; South Carolina, Frogmore, May 17, and Hilton Head, May 24; North Carolina, Cape Hatteras, May 20, and Churchs Island, May 30; Virginia, Cobb Island, May 19, and Wallops Island, May 26; Maryland, Dulaneys Valley, May 13; Pennsylvania, Erie, May 19; New Jersey, Cape May County, May 23, and Elizabeth, May 30; New York, Jamaica, May 26, Lake Canandaigua, May 30, and Orient Point, May 30; Connecticut, Westport, May 28, Fairfield, May 30, and Norwalk, June 1; Rhode Island, Block Island, May 29, and South Auburn, June 5; Massachusetts, Ipswich, May 30, Dennis, June 2, and Cape Cod, June 6; Quebec, Godbout, June 9; Louisiana, Mermerton, May 2; Missouri, Concordia, May 23; Kentucky, Bowling Green, June 3; Illinois, Chicago, May 26, and Waukegan, May 27; Indiana, Indianapolis, May 30; Ohio, Oberlin, May 22, Youngstown, May 23, and Painesville, May 27; Michigan, Detroit, May 26, Jackson, May 28, and Charity Island, June 1; Ontario, Bowmanville, May 25, Toronto, May 26, Kingston, May 30; Iowa, Emmetsburg, May 25, National, May 26, and Sioux City, May 31; Wisconsin, Shiocton, May 27, and Madison, May 30; Minnesota, Waseca, May 24, Hallock, May 26, and Heron Lake, June 2; Texas, Point Isabel, June 2, and Corpus Christi, June 7; Oklahoma, Norman, May 25; Kansas, Wichita County, May 22; Nebraska, Alda, May 21; South Dakota, Vermilion, May 24, and Forestburg, June 1; North Dakota, Jamestown, May 15, Towner County, May 25, and Jerusalem, June 1; Manitoba, Margaret, May 31, and Shoal Lake, June 3; Saskatchewan, Hay Lake, June 2, and Kutanajan Lake, June 10; Colorado, Denver, May 30; Montana, Baker, May 23; Alberta, Flagstaff, June 1, and Fort Chipewyan, June 8; Yucatan, Cozumel Island, April 18; Oaxaca, San Mateo del Mar, May 15; Vera Cruz, Tampico, April 10; Lower California, San Geronimo Island, April 14, and San Quentin, May 10; California, Alameda, May 21, and Santa Barbara, May 26; Washington, “east side of mountains,” May 18; and British Columbia, Masset, June 16.

_Fall migration._--Early dates of fall arrival are: British Columbia, Comox, July 5; Oregon, coastal region, July 26; California, Venice, July 4; Alameda, July 22, and Santa Barbara, July 24; Alberta, Alliance, August 3; Colorado, Denver, August 21, and Barr, August 31; Saskatchewan, Kiddleston, July 7, and Last Mountain Lake, August 19; Manitoba, Oak Lake, July 31, and Shoal Lake, August 8; North Dakota, Grafton, August 23; South Dakota, Forestburg, August 11; Nebraska, Lincoln, August 7; Texas, Rockport, August 12, Tivoli, August 15, and San Angelo, August 31; Wisconsin, Lake Koshkonong, August 14; Iowa, Burlington, August 13; Ontario, Toronto, July 23, Beamsville, August 2, and Hamilton, August 9; Michigan, Little Lake, July 24, Greenville, August 10, and Charity Island, August 20; Ohio, Painesville, August 12, and Columbus, August 23; Indiana, Millers, August 8; Illinois, La Grange, August 21, and Chicago, August 24; Quebec, Godbout, July 30, and Bras d’Or, August 5; Maine, Portland, July 31; Massachusetts, Essex, July 18, Attleboro Falls, July 21, and Monomoy Island, July 7; Rhode Island, Point Judith, July 12, and South Auburn, August 13; New York, Quogue, July 1, Montauk Point Light, July 20, Orient, July 24, and Shinnecock Bay, August 5; New Jersey, Great Bay, July 19, Stone Harbor, July 22, and Cape May, July 27; Pennsylvania, Erie, August 1, and Whites Island, August 10; Maryland, Plum Point, August 10; Virginia, Cobb Island, August 19; North Carolina, Charlotte Inlet, July 4, Cape Fear, July 7, and Carolina Beach, July 10; Georgia, Savannah, August 12; Alabama, Dauphin, and Petit Bois Islands, August 21; Florida, Key West, August 8, Daytona Beach, August 17, and Pensacola, August 28; and Lesser Antilles, Barbados, August 22, and Grenada, August 27.

Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska, Wainwright, September 13, Taku River, September 26, Kenai River, October 7, and Craig, November 14; British Columbia, Okanagan Landing, September 28, and Chilliwack, October 23; Alberta, Vermilion-Innisfrea, September 16, and Whitford Lake, October 29; Montana, Priest Butte Lakes, September 4; Colorado, Fort Collins, October 28, and Denver, November 13; Mackenzie, Great Bear Lake, September 5, and Fort Simpson, September 17; Keewatin, Swampy Lake, September 5; Manitoba, Oak Lake, October 31; North Dakota, Grafton, October 27; South Dakota, Fort Sisseton, October 25, and Sioux Falls, November 7; Nebraska, Lincoln, October 21; Kansas, Hamilton, October 13, and Lawrence, October 29; Minnesota, Minneapolis, October 28; Wisconsin, Lake Mills, October 2; Iowa, Keokuk, October 28, and Sioux City, November 3; Ontario, Point Pelee, October 18, Ottawa, November 11, and Kingston, November 16; Michigan, Detroit, November 3, Sault Ste. Marie, November 5, and Charity Island, November 21; Ohio, Youngstown, November 11, Painesville, November 29; Illinois, Chicago, November 3, and La Grange, November 6; Missouri, Independence, November 5, and Courtney, November 9; Franklin, Winter Island, August 17; Nova Scotia, Pictou, October 11, and Wolfville, November 8; Quebec, Montreal, November 1, and Tabusintoc, November 3; Massachusetts, Monomoy Island, November 14, and Boston, November 29; Connecticut, South Norwalk, November 7; New York, Orient, November 26, and Long Beach, November 26; New Jersey, Sandy Hook, October 25, and Cape May County, November 7; and Pennsylvania, Erie, November 10.

_Casual records._--Two specimens of the black-bellied plover were obtained on Clipperton Island, November 19, 1901; Gundlach reported taking two at San Juan Bay, Porto Rico, Stahl had two others, while F. A. Potts saw one near Central Aguirre on September 9 and 10, 1921, and a flock of six or seven noted on several occasions near Salinas, during December, 1920; the species is of casual occurrence in Bermuda (Mangrove Bay, September 5, 1848, Sand Hills, November 5, 1874, and Warnick Camp, November 13, 1874); both Reinhardt and Hagerup record them from Greenland; and one (possibly the European form) was obtained in late October, at Kaalualu, Hawaii (Henshaw). Although seemingly on the regular migration route, the only records for Arkansas are two specimens taken at Fort Smith, September 19, 1892.

_Egg dates._--Bering Sea coast of Alaska: 24 records, May 27 to June 4; 16 records, May 29 and 30. Arctic coasts of Alaska and Canada: 26 records, June 10 to July 11; 13 records, June 28 to July 5.

PLUVIALIS APRICARIA ALTIFRONS (Brehm)

EUROPEAN GOLDEN PLOVER

_Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain_

HABITS

The claim of the golden plover of Europe to a place in the American list rests on its occurrence not infrequently in Greenland. The latest authority on Greenland birds, Mr. E. Lehn Schiöler, in his great work _Danmarks Fugle_ (vol. 2), refers the Greenland birds to the northern race of European golden plover, _Pluvialis apricarius altifrons_ (Brehm). It is now generally agreed that there are two races of this species, and that the black breast is more strongly developed on the northern form, while the southern race, _P. apricarius apricarius_ (Linnaeus) has only a marbling of black on the breast in spring. In Greenland it has occurred both on the east and west sides, but has not been proved to breed there though suspected of doing so.

_Spring._--In the British Isles the northern golden plovers are said by Abel Chapman to arrive in Northumberland as early as mid February, spreading over the lower ground and remaining in packs, while the breeding birds arrive later and are soon distributed over the moors in pairs. While the southern birds remain on the moorlands to breed, the northern visitors pass on to their nesting grounds in the Faroes, Iceland, and Scandinavia.

_Courtship._--Our information is, as might be expected, scanty, owing to the inaccessible nature of its breeding ground and its retiring habits. Abel Chapman (1889) describes the loud wild spring call, which he renders as _tirr-pee-you_, and adds that after this has ceased one hears only the well-known plaintive pipe of alarm and a peculiar rippling song or warble which is wholly indescribable. This, he says, is the joyous note of courtship and is analogous to the drumming of the snipe, etc. A fuller description is that of Seton Gordon (1915) who writes as follows:

During the season of courtship and indeed up to June is
heard the song of the golden plover and this song is one
of the most striking things in the habits of moorland
birds. Before commencing to sing the cock bird mounts
into the air to a height of at least 100 feet and flies
slowly, deliberately around the spot where his mate is
listening to him below, uttering as he flies a musical
whistling cry of two syllables sounding like _whee-wheeu_,
the last being long drawn out. His flight during this
time is quite distinctive, he no longer cleaves the air
with sharp and rapid wing beats, but moves his wings with
slow deliberate strokes, holding them V-shaped for an
instant between the beats. Should he cease his song--even
for a few moments--the normal flight is at once resumed.
His cry on these occasions carries over a great stretch
of moor, and I think can be heard at a greater distance
even than the vibrating notes of the curlew. After some
time, during which these long-drawn whistles are regularly
continued, the singer shoots earthward, uttering, just as
he is reaching the ground, a curious purring cry, repeated
rapidly five or six times. On paper the sounds resemble
_trooeu, trooeu, trooeu_. These descriptions apply strictly
to the southern race, but the habits of the two forms in
the breeding season are identical and the Icelandic birds
perform their song flights in the same way as the Scotch
birds. Hantzsch points out very justly that the golden
plover is not at all quarrelsome in disposition, and though
rival males may vie in song with one another they meet
frequently quite amicably and the natives have long noted
the toleration which the plover extends to the dunlin and
which has earned for the latter the name Loa-thraoll, or,
as our forefathers put it, Plover’s-page.

_Nesting._--There is no concealment about the nest; the vast expanses of moorland or tundra are sufficient protection. Sometimes the nest hollow may be found on a tiny hillock, sometimes in wiry grass or among sparse or burnt heather. Such lining as there is is usually scanty and consists of the materials at hand, leaves, bents, or a bit of heather stem. Unoccupied scrapes may generally be found near at hand. Even where the birds are plentiful, as in some parts of Iceland, the nests are generally a considerable distance apart.

_Eggs._--Normally four in number, occasionally three only, especially in late layings. Hantzsch (1905) records one instance of five in a nest, and five have also been met with in the southern race. They are pyriform and laid with the points meeting and are very beautiful. The ground varies from a pale greenish blue to very rich and warm shades of creamy brown, to almost orange, tinged brownish, heavily blotched with irregular markings of deep chocolate or blackish. The measurements of 40 eggs from Iceland average 52.3 by 35.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =55.1= by 36.4, 51.6 by =38.3=, =49.2= by 33.8 and 52.3 by =33.2= millimeters.

Incubation is carried on by both sexes, as Alfred Taylor has watched the male and female change places on the eggs. This explains the rather contradictory accounts from various authors. H. H. Slater, Seebohm, and R. Collett only shot males from the nest, while Saxby, Hantzsch, and Heatherley only saw the female on the eggs. Miss F. Pitt only noted the male on the eggs during the last week of incubation, but flushed the hen once at an earlier period. Early estimates of 16 and 20 days as the incubation period are certainly erroneous. F. Heatherley watched one nest for 24 days, but the eggs were probably laid some days earlier and in an incubator one egg hatched on the 27th day (W. Evans). Although such wary birds, it occasionally happens that a nest is placed in a hollow of the ground from which no view of the country is possible to the sitting bird. Riding at night suddenly up to a nest of this kind in Iceland, we found the incubating bird did not stir from the eggs while three men and ponies stood round, and it was not until a hand was placed within 3 inches that the bird flew off. As a rule, the melancholy piping note is the first intimation of the presence of a breeding pair and shows that they are on the alert.

_Young._--The young leave the nest as soon as their down is dried and are cared for by both sexes. They grow very fast, and Hantzsch states that after 10 or 14 days they can flutter a little way, but the full flying period is about 4 weeks.

_Plumages._--The plumages and molts are fully described in A Practical Handbook of British Birds, edited by H. F. Witherby (1920).

_Food._--On its breeding grounds the food consists of insects, chiefly Coleoptera (_Notiophilus_, _Agriotes_, _Sitones_, _Curculio_ and larvae); Lepidoptera (_Agrotis_); larvae and imagines of Diptera, Hymenoptera (_Formica_ and _Forficula_); also Mollusca (small terrestrial species, snails and slugs); Aunclida (earthworms) and Arachnida (spiders). On migration and in winter quarters it has been recorded as eating marine mollusca (_Vitrina_, _Littorina_, _Rissoa_, _Lacuna_, etc., and fry of _Mytilus edulis_), also small crustacea (Isopoda) and seeds of various plants (_Glaux maritima_, _Carex_, _Polygonum_, etc.), and berries of _Rhamnus_, _Vaccinium_, _Empetrum_, etc.; also seaweeds (Algae).

_Behavior._--Outside the breeding season the golden plover is a gregarious bird, nearly always to be met with in flocks of varying sizes and often associating with flocks of lapwings and feeding together. On the alarm being given, both species take to wing, but in characteristically different ways. The golden plover rise together and form a compact body, maneuvering together in any direction, while the lapwings rise gradually in an unwieldy mass, which breaks up from time to time and the component parts move in different directions. The pointed wings and more rapid strokes of the golden plover also contrast strongly with the slow, flappy, irregular flight of the lapwing. When on migration the golden plovers often adopt a loose V-shaped formation.

_Enemies._--The peregrine occasionally takes toll of the flocks in the autumn and spring months, while the skua gulls, or jaegers, and in some districts the hooded crows, destroy eggs or young. The fox, no doubt, occasionally snaps up an isolated nest of eggs or young.

_Fall._--About the end of October or early in November the flocks of northern golden plover arrive on the marshes of the east coast of England, sometimes in enormous numbers, but their length of stay is determined by weather conditions, to which they are very susceptible, showing extreme restlessness before the approach of stormy or windy weather and leaving the district altogether in hard winters.

_Winter._--Many birds winter on the coast of the British Isles unless the weather is severe, feeding chiefly on small marine mollusca but, as a rule, avoid the mud flats, which are the favorite resort of the grey plover (_Squatarola_), except occasionally in very dry weather, feeding chiefly on the pasture lands and in the wheat fields in the daytime and leaving at dark for the higher ground.

DISTRIBUTION

_Breeding range._--The northern race breeds in Iceland, the Faroes, probably a pair or two on Bear Island, northern Scandinavia, Finland, and North Russia and Siberia to the Yenisei. The southern race breeds in the mountainous parts of the British Isles, southern Scandinavia, Denmark, sparingly in Belgium, Holland, and North Germany, and in Russia south to the Perm Government.

_Winter range._--It is not possible to separate the winter ranges of the two forms at present, but golden plover migrate across Europe to the Mediterranean and north Africa, occasionally visiting the Atlantic isles, and are said to have occurred in the Gabun on the west and Somaliland and Lama in East Africa; in Asia its limits are Aden, Baluchistan, and Sind.

_Spring migration._--At the Straits of Gibraltar the northern migrants pass in February and March (late date March 6, L. H. Irby), but on the Portuguese coast W. C. Tait states that they leave at the end of February. In the eastern Mediterranean the passage is noted at Cyprus in early March. At Heligoland Gätke says they arrive during May and early June on their way to Scandinavia, but the Icelandic flocks arrive about mid-April as a rule.

_Fall migration._--On the southward migration Gätke records the arrival of the birds of the year as early as July, but adds that the old birds only begin to arrive toward the end of October. On the west side of the Mediterranean Tait records the arrival of the earliest birds in October, but the main passage in November; and Farier also notes the passage at Tangier in October and November; while on the eastern side they reach Cyprus about the beginning of November.

_Casual records._--Fischer recorded a pair on Jan Mayen on June 29, 1883, and it has occurred on the Azores, but is only a rare straggler, Madeira (recorded by Harcourt and also by Schmitz on January 13, 1896) and the Canaries, where Bannerman describes it as a rare visitor (records scanty and indefinite).

In Africa records from the Cape (J. Verreaux), Lamu, East Africa (Layard), and the Gabun (Du Chaillu) require substantiation. It is also stated to have occurred in Somaliland, but the normal winter quarters lie north of these localities. In Asia it has been shot at Gwadar, Baluchistan, in January, 1872, by W. T. Blanford, and one was obtained by Brooks near Schwan on January 27, 1878, as well as a second at Karachi on January 7, 1919, by Captain Hanna. The only other Indian record is one obtained by Reid at Lucknow. In Greenland (several records).

_Egg dates._--Iceland: May 21 to June 1 (5 dates); June 2 to 29 (18 dates). North Norway, June 10 to 20 (5 dates). North Russia and Siberia, June 10 to July 1 (10 dates). Most eggs of the southern race are laid in the British Isles from May 10 onward, but exceptionally eggs have been met with from April 16 to the end of that month, and in Friesland eggs have been taken on April 19.

PLUVIALIS DOMINICA DOMINICA (Müller)

AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER

HABITS

The golden plover is not only one of our most beautiful shore birds in its brilliant spring plumage, but its wonderful migration excites our admiration and the comparison of its former abundance with its present scarcity furnishes a striking picture of the ruthless slaughter that has squandered our previous wealth of wild life. A few quotations will serve to illustrate the enormous flights of golden plover that swarmed over both American continents during the past century. Robert B. Roosevelt (1884) thus refers to a flock he saw near Montauk Point, Long Island, many years ago:

A gentle hollow spreads before us for several acres
literally covered with the ranks of the much-desired, the
matchless golden plover. As they stand in serried legions,
the white mark on their heads gives a strange checkered
weirdness to the phalanx; and we involuntarily pause,
spellbound by the novelty of the spectacle. Our host
himself, though an old hand, owns that he has never before
gazed on such a sight. There they stand, with heads erect
and bodies motionless, just out of gunshot. Their number
is computed by our companion to be not less than 3,000,
closely packed, and apparently awaiting our onset. Warily
crawling to within 70 yards, we halt as we see unmistakable
evidences of uneasiness and suspicion among the crowded
ranks. They stoop, they run, they rise with “a sounding
roar,” to which the united report of our four barrels
savagely responds. Away, away with headlong speed scatters
and dissolves that multitudinous host, and we hasten to
secure our spoils.

Writing of conditions in Argentina about the middle of the last century, W. H. Hudson (1922) writes:

The golden plover was then one of the abundant species.
After its arrival in September, the plains in the
neighborhood of my home were peopled with immense flocks of
this bird. Sometimes in hot summers the streams and marshes
would mostly dry up, and the aquatic-bird population,
the plover included, would shift their quarters to other
districts. During one of these droughty seasons, when my
age was 9, there was a marshy ground 2 miles from my home
where a few small pools of water still remained, and to
this spot the golden plover would resort every day at noon.
They would appear in flocks from all quarters, flying to it
like starlings in England coming in to some great roosting
center on a winter evening. I would then mount my pony
and gallop off joyfully to witness the spectacle. Long
before coming in sight of them the noise of their voices
would be audible, growing louder as I drew near. Coming to
the ground, I would pull up my horse and sit gazing with
astonishment and delight at the spectacle of that immense
multitude of birds, covering an area of 2 or 3 acres,
looking less like a vast flock than a floor of birds, in
color a rich deep brown, in strong contrast to the pale
gray of the dried-up ground all round them. A living,
moving floor and a sounding one as well, and the sound,
too, was amazing. It was like the sea, but unlike it in
character since it was not deep; it was more like the wind
blowing, let us say, on thousands of tight-drawn wires of
varying thicknesses, vibrating them to shrill sound, a mass
and tangle of 10,000 sounds. But it is indescribable and
unimaginable.

Edward H. Forbush (1912) tells of two men who killed plover enough to fill a tip car two-thirds full in one day, during a big storm on Nantucket in the forties. Again he speaks of a great flight which occurred there on August 29, 1863, “when golden plover and Eskimo curlew landed on the island in such numbers as to almost darken the sun. Between seven and eight thousand of these birds were killed on the island and on Tuckernuck.” He says that from 1860 on the species began to decrease, due to the demand created by the failing supply of passenger pigeons, and that in 1890 alone two Boston firms received from the West 40 barrels closely packed with curlew and plover, with 25 dozen curlew and 60 dozen plover to the barrel.

By the end of the last century this species had about reached its lowest ebb; it had become scarce where it once abounded; no more big flights occurred; and in many places it was rarely seen. But protective measures came in time to save it from extermination; the stopping of the sale of game and the removal of this species from the game-bird list were badly needed. Since the last move was made the species has shown some signs of recovery. Edwin Beaupre (1917) says that “after an absence of almost 15 years, the golden plover has apparently resumed its migratory visits to eastern Ontario.” Prof. William Rowan (1923) says:

This year has been an exceptional golden-plover year. At
the place referred to above, somewhere over a thousand
birds were seen on the 20th of May alone, in moving flocks
varying in number from 30 individuals to several hundreds.
This was evidently not unique; for about the same time I
got a report from quite another part of the Province that
this species was unusually abundant, while from yet another
quarter I got a very good description of the bird in a
letter with a request that I name it for the inquirer, a
careful bird observer. Her comment was that she had never
seen the species before, but that it was, at the time of
writing, present on the plowed fields in enormous numbers.

And John T. Nichols tells me that “of recent years there has been a distinct increase” on Long Island. If shooting conditions in its winter home could be controlled, its future would be assured.

_Spring._--From its winter home on the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay the golden plover starts early on its long northward migration. Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1926) noted that--

The northward migration began with a flock of nine seen
January 23, 1921, at a little fresh-water pool on the beach
near La Paloma, Uruguay; when flushed these passed on to
the west. Single individuals were seen near San Vicente,
Uruguay, in flight toward the northwest on January 24 and
30. At Lazcano, Uruguay, birds in passage north were seen
in early morning on February 7 and 8, and one was recorded
February 18 at Rio Negro, Uruguay. On March 8 at Guamini,
Buenos Aires, 15 came in at dusk to roost on a little mud
bar in company with Hudsonian godwits. The migration seemed
almost at an end then, as later I saw only four at Tunuyan,
Mendoza, on March 23; and on April 5 only a few were heard
calling with other shore birds in flight northward over
Tucuman, Tucuman.

The exact route followed through the interior of South America is not definitely known, but it is not known to migrate along either coast of that continent. Austin H. Clark (1905) has advanced the theory that it prefers to fly with a beam wind and that it selects the route over which the prevailing winds will produce this condition. He suggests the following as the probable route:

In returning the birds would first go north (across the
prevailing westerlies) until in the vicinity of Buenos
Aires and the country just to the west of it, where they
would encounter northeasterly winds, which would turn them
inland, up the valley of the La Plata and along the plains
to the east of the Andes, the course gradually becoming
more northerly, and then northeasterly in the area covered
by the southeast trades. They would reach the Amazon
Valley in its western half, and then under the guidance of
the northeast trades fly northwest toward the Isthmus of
Panama and Central America. The course from here would be
northwest across the trades to Texas and the Mississippi
Valley. The birds follow up this valley northward and then,
on reaching Canada, fly northwest across the prevailing
southwesterly and westerly winds to their breeding grounds
in western Arctic America.

Another theory advanced by Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1912), into which the facts seem to fit equally well, is that--

Birds follow that route between the winter and summer
homes that is the shortest and at the same time furnishes
an abundant food supply. The plover seeks the shortest
treeless route overland, and alighting on the coast of
Texas travels leisurely over the Mississippi Valley
prairies, which are abundantly supplied with food, to the
plains of the Saskatchewan, and thence to the Arctic coast.
Not until Texas is reached can the movements of the golden
plover be definitely traced, and at no place between Peru
and Texas has it ever been recorded as common. In fact, the
records as they stand are what they should be if the plover
escapes the forested regions of northern South America and
Central America by a single flight of from 2,000 to 2,500
miles from the valleys of eastern Peru to the treeless
prairies of Texas.

The golden plover is practically unknown west of the Rocky Mountains in the spring; it has always been a rare straggler on the Atlantic coast at this season; and even as far east as Ohio it rarely occurs. Its main route is through the prairie regions west of the Mississippi River. I have seen what was probably the last of the migration, during the first week of May, along the coastal prairies of Texas, and have watched the late spring flight in Saskatchewan during the last week in May; probably I missed the heaviest part of the flight in both cases. On May 26 to 28, 1917, while driving about Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, I had a good chance to observe a considerable flight of these beautiful birds, all apparently in full spring plumage. The flocks appeared from the southward during the early forenoon, flying swiftly in ever-changing formations, rising to a height of 30 or 40 feet and then sweeping low close to the ground. They all seemed to follow the same course over the burnt-over prairies and the freshly plowed and harrowed lands near the shore of the lake. Occasionally a flock would stop and scatter about to feed; their black bellies and golden-spangled backs were surprisingly inconspicuous on the black ground and among the yellow stubble. They were very shy and restless, constantly on the move, and if followed up too closely they were on the wing again and soon disappeared over the northern horizon. It was almost impossible to approach them on foot when they were on the ground, though a flock would occasionally fly by within gunshot. One that I shot on the ground was 75 paces away, measured distance. Some of the flocks were accompanied by a few buff-breasted sandpipers.

Professor Rowan (1926) says that in Alberta:

The arrival of this species at our lake is precipitate,
for there may be none to-day and hundreds to-morrow. The
flocks would appear to arrive by night, for they are there
at daybreak, when one usually takes the first walk around.
They are not birds of the shore line in the spring, but
like the buff-breasted sandpiper, they seem nevertheless
chiefly to frequent country adjacent to some large lake.
This, together with their mode of arrival, in considerable
flocks and evidently at night, suggests that they have
traveled a considerable distance from their last stopping
place. They stay with us some days and then go in the
manner in which they came, _en masse_. We have no records
earlier than May 8 when the birds may first be expected,
but the main contingent arrives nearer the 16th or 17th,
while by the 23d or 24th they have usually all gone. Their
period with us is therefore brief as compared with the
majority of shore birds.

The remainder of the journey is quickly completed, for, at Point Barrow, John Murdoch (1885) says:

They are among the earlier waders to arrive, as stragglers
generally appear about the 20th to the 25th of May, before
there is much bare ground. In 1882 a small party in full
breeding plumage, and apparently all males, arrived May 21,
but no more arrived until June 11. The tundra was at this
time bare only along the edge of the beach, and the ice and
snow was not yet gone from the lagoons. This party remained
in nearly the same place for a couple of weeks, feeding on
small red worms which they found in marshy spots, and all
but two of them were taken, although they were very wild.

Along through the first and second week in June they
continued to arrive in small parties, and from that time on
are quite plenty scattered in pairs and threes all over the
tundra. They are very wild and difficult to approach, and
very noisy. In addition to their ordinary well-known call
note, they have in the breeding season, a loud but very
melodious cry of _tud’ling!_ many times repeated, uttered
as the bird flies along rather high, with long slow strokes
of the wings.

_Nesting._--Roderick MacFarlane was very successful in finding nests of golden plover in the Anderson River region and other parts of the Arctic barren grounds. He sent a large number of eggs to Washington and I find in his notes references to over 120 nests, on which some data were given, mostly very brief. He says that “golden plover were in great abundance in the barren grounds, as well as along the Arctic coast. They seldom or never nested in the wooded country, though a few specimens were found on the open plains or commons, which occur on the borders of that tract.” Some of the nests on the Arctic coast were “near the beach” or even “within a few yards of the sea water.” The nests were evidently mere hollows in the open tundra, lined with dead leaves; there were no attempts at concealment, but the protective coloring of the eggs made them very difficult to find. He says that “when a nest of this plover is approached the female invariably gets off it at a quick pace, between a run and a walk, which it continues at short intervals until the intruder be attracted to a distance therefrom, when it flies away. The male generally joins its mate in this.” On a few occasions, when surprised, the bird fluttered away for a short distance, but soon began to run as usual. Often the bird left the nest when the men were 100 yards away from it. Once when they had hunted in vain for an hour and a half, they retired and watched. “After a few minutes she came on at a cautious run, stopping frequently and making occasional excursions in different directions,” and finally settled on the eggs. They found that several of the party had repeatedly passed quite close to, and one had nearly trodden on the eggs. Watching the bird return to the nest, which she generally does within a few minutes, seems to be the best way of finding a nest.

Of the nests found near Point Barrow, Mr. Murdoch (1885) says:

The nest is exceedingly hard to find, although it is not
concealed at all, but is simply a depression in the bare
black clayey tundra lined with a little dry moss. The only
vegetation on this part of the tundra is white and grayish
moss, which harmonizes so extraordinarily with the peculiar
blotching of the eggs that it is almost impossible to see
them unless one knows exactly where to look. A favorite
nesting site is on the high banks of the gullies or small
streams. No nests were ever found in the grass or in swampy
ground.

W. Sprague Brooks (1915) found only one nest near Demarcation Point, Alaska, of which he says:

I found this nest on June 25 with three eggs about
one-quarter incubated. The male was on the nest. It took
several days to find the nest, for the bird would leave
when I was a long way off and begin running about and
feeding as though it had nothing else to do. By placing
a lump of tundra each day where I first saw the bird I
eventually found her nest, a mere depression in some
greenish moss which, with scattered bits of brown dead
vegetation, harmonized extraordinarily with the eggs.

When the bird saw that its nest was finally discovered it
showed great distress and ran toward me until about 20
paces distant, where it stood tottering as if about to
fall, with one wing raised over its back. In a short time
the bird, with tail down and a wing dragging, would walk
slowly from me. As I never followed, the bird would return
and totter a while, repeating the same performance several
times until secured for the proper identification of the
eggs.

_Eggs._--The golden plover’s normal set is of four eggs, but MacFarlane collected many sets of three and one of five. These are quite uniformly ovate pyriform in shape and have only a slight gloss. The ground colors vary from “cinnamon buff” or “light pinkish cinnamon” to “light buff,” “cartridge buff,” or “cream color,” hence more buffy or less olivaceous or grayish than in eggs of the black-bellied plover. They are boldly and profusely marked, more or less irregularly, with large and small spots and irregular blotches of very dark browns or black, “Vandyke brown,” “clove brown,” and brownish black. Sometimes there are a few underlying small spots of “drab gray.” The measurements of 143 eggs in the United States National Museum average 47.5 by 32.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =56= by 31, 50 by =34.5=, =42= by 34, and 46 by =30= millimeters. Both sexes incubate. The period of incubation for the European species is said to be 27 days.

_Plumages._--In the downy young golden plover the forehead, crown, back, wings, rump, and thighs are mottled with bright “wax yellow” and black, the yellow being mainly at the tips of the down. A broad patch under the eye, extending back to the ears, and the chin, are white; a spot in front of the eye and an indistinct band above it, the hind neck and the throat are yellowish white, the hind neck being mottled with black; a broad band from the lores to the nape is pale yellow, mottled with black. The remaining under parts are grayish white.

In fresh juvenal plumage, on the breeding grounds, the crown and all the upper parts are brownish black, the feathers tipped or heavily notched with bright yellow, “light cadmium” to “buff-yellow,” brightest on the rump; the wing coverts are pale sepia, notched paler yellow or white; the breast is pale drab, barred, spotted or notched with pale dusky and dull yellow, “mustard yellow” to “Naples yellow”; the belly is white, partially barred with pale dusky; and the tail feathers are sepia, indistinctly barred with darker sepia and tipped with dull yellow. By the time that young birds reach us on migration in September, the bright yellows of the upper parts have faded considerably, and the duller yellow on the breast has disappeared entirely. This plumage is not molted until after the birds leave us; late in the fall, November or later, a partial molt of the body plumage produces the first winter plumage, which can be distinguished from the adult only by the juvenal tail and some retained scapulars and tertials. What happens the next spring we have not the material to show. Most of the birds that we see here in the spring are in fully adult nuptial plumage, but I have seen quite a number of birds, some taken on their breeding grounds, that showed, more or less, old, worn, winter plumage; these may be young birds in their first nuptial plumage.

The postnuptial molt of adults begins with the body molt in August, the new pale drab and whitish feathers of the winter plumage appearing first in the black under parts; this molt continues through September while the birds are migrating. But the primaries are not molted until winter, November to February. In winter the plumage of the under parts is very pale drab, shading off to almost pure white on the chin and belly; the adult tail is irregularly barred with dusky and grayish or yellowish white; the feathers of the mantle are brownish black, narrowly edged with yellow, not notched or spotted as in spring. The prenuptial molt of the body plumage begins in March and lasts until May in some individuals; many old winter feathers are often found in breeding birds, especially in the wing coverts, scapulars, tertials and back. The beautiful nuptial plumage is too well known to need description here.

_Food._--The favorite feeding grounds of the golden plover are rolling pasture lands where the grass is short or scanty, prairies, plains, plowed lands and occasionally open sand or mud flats. Its food consists almost entirely of insects, chiefly Orthoptera which abound in the pasture lands. It is said to feed mainly on grasshoppers, but George H. Mackay (1891), who is very familiar with it, says that he has never seen it eat any, though he has watched it through a strong glass near at hand. He says:

I have also examined the stomachs of a good many which
I have shot on Nantucket, and have never found any
grasshoppers in them, nor in fact anything but crickets
(which seem their principal food there), grass seeds, a
little vegetable matter, like seaweed, coarse sand, and
small stones. I have also frequently shot them with the
vent stained purple, probably from the berries of the
_Empetrum nigrum_.

They must find abundant food in the north, for they are always very fat when they arrive here. The large numbers of grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, and other insects that they destroy make them very beneficial birds to the farmers of the west, where they also do much good by eating the grubs, cutworms, and wireworms on freshly plowed lands, their favorite resorts in spring. On the shores and open flats they find some small mollusks and crustaceans. The crops of two which Lucien M. Turner collected in northern Ungava were filled with ripening berries of _Empetrum nigrum_ and remains of spiders. Hantzsch found them eating beetles and caterpillars on Baffin Island.

_Behavior._--The flight of the golden plover is exceedingly swift, strong and protracted, as it must be to make such wonderful migrations. Over the prairies the flocks sweep along in compact and ever changing formations, skimming close to the ground at times and then rising high in the air, frequently whistling as they go. William Brewster (1925) has described their flight, as seen at Umbagog Lake, Maine, as follows:

They habitually flew faster than any of the other waders
and perhaps more swiftly than any of the ducks except
the hooded merganser. Their long, pointed wings, lifting
high and cutting deep at each stroke, beat rapidly and
ceaselessly, yet so easily and smoothly as to indicate
comparatively slight muscular effort. If they happened
to pass near at hand or overhead their flight was likely
to impress one as having not only exceeding speed but
irresistible momentum, also as of solid projectiles,
hurtling through the air. Seen at a distance they appear
to be moving more slowly and looked not unlike passenger
pigeons.

When preparing to alight the flocks often perform extensive evolutions, circling and turning, as they sweep about over the ground, as if selecting a satisfactory landing place. When a suitable spot is chosen, they all alight in a compact bunch, raising their wings high above their backs before folding them, and soon scatter over the ground to feed. When on the ground they are very active, running rapidly and gracefully, stopping suddenly to look around, with head held high, and then striking quickly at some morsel of food. Mr. Mackay (1891) says:

When scattered over considerable ground, as is usual after
they have been any length of time on their feeding ground,
every bird apparently on its own hook, if alarmed, a
note is sounded; they then rise so as to meet as soon as
possible at a common center, which gained, away they go in
a compact body. During the middle of the day they are fond
of seeking the margins of ponds, where they sit quietly
for a long time, if undisturbed. When disturbed they are
almost certain to return, in a short time, to the same spot
from which they have been started, that is, if they have
been resting or feeding there any length of time. When
suspicious, it is very difficult to approach, decoy, or
call them; if not harassed, they are as a rule quite tame
and gentle, and can be easily driven up to with horse and
wagon.

_Voice._--John T. Nichols says in his notes:

The flight note of the golden plover in migration is a
far-reaching _que-e-e-a_, with a quaver in the middle and
falling at the end. Though with a thrilling plover quality
it at the same time has an affinity to the killdeer’s
cry, being less mellow and whistled than the note of the
blackbelly, which it also suggests, reversed.

Mr. Mackay (1891) says that when these birds are approaching decoys every bird seems to be whistling “a note like _coodle, coodle, coodle_.” Mr. Forbush (1912) calls its note “a plaintive _too-lee-e_,” or “a bright whistle, _queep-quee-lee-leep_.” Others have given different renderings of some of the above notes.

_Field marks._--The bird with which the golden plover is most likely to be confused is the black-bellied plover, but the golden is a smaller, more slender, bird, with a generally darker appearance. When seen in flight the tone of the tail is very dark and the axillars, under the wings, are grey, whereas in the black-bellied the tail is decidedly whitish and the axillars are very conspicuously black in all plumages; furthermore the black-bellied has a conspicuous light wing bar, which is lacking in the golden. The notes of the two are quite different. When in hand the golden is seen to have no hind toe. Mr. Nichols suggests that the golden has a swifter, more buoyant flight, suggestive of the killdeer.

_Fall._--Mr. Murdoch (1885) refers to the beginning of the migration as follows:

The nesting season continues till the first or middle
of July, about which time the adults begin to collect
in flocks, feeding together around the ponds on the
higher tundra, associated sometimes with a few knots or a
struggling curlew. The old birds leave for the south about
the end of July, and no more plovers are to be seen until
about the middle of August, when the young, who heretofore
have been keeping out of sight, scattered over the tundra,
gather into flocks, and for several days are quite plenty
on the dryer hills and banks, after which they depart.
Stragglers may be seen up to the end of August.

The main trend of the fall migration is southeastwards, mainly west and south of Hudson Bay, but perhaps across it also, to the Atlantic coast, mostly north of New England. In favorable weather the flight is over the ocean from Nova Scotia to South America over, or to the eastward of, Bermuda, and the Lesser Antilles. Mr. Clark (1905) figures out that this is the course they would take, if they flew with a beam wind, across the prevailing winds. Of their course after landing in British Guiana, he says:

From this point their course is not accurately known;
but if we apply this theory, they would follow down the
northeastern tributaries of the Amazons until they came
within the influence of the southeast trades, which would
carry them southwest, over central Amazonia toward Peru and
Bolivia. Somewhat northwest of the Matto Grosso region, the
birds would come under the influence of the easterly winds
on the southern border of the trades, which would turn them
south, and gradually (as they became more northeasterly)
southeast, which would bring the plover into the prairie
region of the Argentine. Here the prevailing westerlies
of the pampas region would be felt, and the birds would,
under their influence, continue down the eastern part of
Patagonia toward Tierra del Fuego.

To add strength to his theory he says that there are specimens in the British Museum from Mount Roraima and the Maroni River, Surinam, and from Peru taken in September and October.

Some birds on the fall migration wander as far north and east as Baffin Island and northeastern Labrador. Lucien M. Turner refers in his notes to several adults which he saw and two which he collected, near the mouth of the Koksoak River, between July 24 and August 19, 1882; and I have a specimen in my collection taken near Hopedale, Labrador, a young bird. Hantzsch found this plover breeding on Baffin Island.

Edwin Beaupre (1917) writes:

In September, 1906, a great flight of plover passed over
the city of Kingston, which is located on the extreme
eastern end of Lake Ontario. The flight was first noticed
about 8 o’clock in the evening, and to one familiar with
the soft, sweet piping of the golden plover, there was no
difficulty whatever in recognizing the bird. A record of
the flight showed that eight flocks passed over the city,
flying very low, at intervals of about 10 minutes. Toward
midnight it was impossible to enumerate the flocks, the
flight being continuous. This must have been the main
migration for that year, and it continued until 4 o’clock
in the morning, covering eight hours. Allowing a speed of
25 miles an hour--a conservative estimate--the distance
between the leading flocks and the rear guard must have
been approximately 200 miles. What a sublime spectacle
this would have been had one the privilege of seeing it in
the open light of day! The vanguard of this great aerial
aggregation must have reached almost to the Atlantic
seaboard, while the rear flocks were trailing their
wonderful way over the eastern waters of Lake Ontario. They
no doubt began their ocean journey some miles south of
the coast of Nova Scotia, but not far enough to seriously
affect their regular route to Argentina, in which country
they escape the hardship of a Canadian winter.