(AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER.)
+Charadrius virginianus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 501.
+Charadrius virginicus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 142;
_Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 197 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._
1882, p. 628 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 313 (Bahia
Blanca); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 472 (Lomas de Zamora).
+Charadrius dominicus+, _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._
i. p. 139. +Charadrius fulvus americanus+, _Seebohm, Plovers_, p.
100.
_Description._--Above brownish black, with numerous irregular spots
of yellow; forehead, superciliary stripe, and sides of neck white:
beneath black; crissum whitish; axillaries smoky grey; bill black;
feet dark grey: whole length 10·5 inches, wing 7·0, tail 2·8.
_Female_ similar. _Young_: beneath dirty white, with greyish
freckles.
_Hab._ America.
This closely allied representative of the Golden Plover of Europe,
from which it is distinguishable mainly by its rather larger size and
smoky-grey axillaries, visits South America in autumn.
The American Golden Plover is abundant and well known to everyone by its
native name _Chorlo_ throughout Southern Argentina. Its wild clear notes
are first heard about the last week in August; and among the first
comers many individuals are seen still wearing the nuptial dress. After
their long journey from the Arctic regions they are lean and not worth
shooting; two months later they become excessively fat, and are then
much appreciated by _gourmets_. But although so regular in their arrival
they do not regularly visit the same localities every season; the bird
may be abundant in a place one year and scarce or absent altogether the
next. During the spring, from September to December, they prefer open
plains with short grass and in the neighbourhood of wet or marshy
ground; at the end of December, when the giant thistle (_Carduus
mariana_), which often covers large areas of country, has been burnt up
by the sun and blown to the ground, they scatter about a great deal in
flocks of from one to four or five hundred. At noon, however, they all
resort to a lagoon or marshy place containing water, congregating day
after day in such numbers that they blacken the ground over an area of
several acres in extent; and at a distance of a quarter of a mile
the din of their united voices resembles the roar of a cataract. As
population increases on the pampas these stupendous gatherings are
becoming more and more rare. Twenty-five years ago it was an exceptional
thing for a man to possess a gun, or to use one when he had it; and if
Chorlos were wanted, a Gaucho boy, with a string a yard long with a ball
of lead attached to each end, could knock down as many as he liked. I
have killed them in this way myself, also with the _bola perdida_--a
ball at the end of a long string thrown at random into a cloud of birds.
The habits, flight, and language of the Golden Plover need not be spoken
of here, as this bird has been so often and exhaustively described by
North-American ornithologists. The only peculiarity it possesses which I
have not seen mentioned, is its faculty of producing a loud sound, as of
a horn, when a few passing birds, catching sight of others of their kind
on the ground below, descend violently and almost vertically to the
earth with unmoving wings. This feat is, however, rarely witnessed; and
on the first occasion when I heard the sound high above me, and looked
up to see half a dozen Chorlos rushing down from the sky, the sight
almost took my breath away with astonishment.
The Golden Plover appears to be most abundant on the pampas between
the thirty-fourth and thirty-sixth parallels of latitude, but how
far south its range extends has not yet been ascertained. The return
migration begins early in March, and yet Mr. Barrows met with it in
the neighbourhood of Bahia Blanca and on the Sierra de la Ventana from
February 8 to March 19. During most of this time he says it was abundant
in flocks of from twenty to two hundred birds, which appeared to be
moving uniformly _south_ or _south-west_.