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.