66 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY O 1 / 



Many species of Plovers and Snipes are regular annual visitors , they come 

 in considerable numbers with the autumnal rains, in the early part of Octo- 

 ber, (some are rather earlier in their advent.) and depart, many, before the 

 end of '.he year ; whilst others remain until February, or later in the succeed- 

 ing year. On the arrival of the migratory flocks in autumn, they ra-nge all 

 over the island where water is to be found. Some species are found during 

 the entire year, the number depending apparently on the signs of the coming 

 seasons ; during the dry summer of 1863 they were more abundant than in 

 18G1 or 1862 ; some of the summer residents breed in the high lands, but the 

 greater number of them are found on the plains and near the coast. 



CHARADRIIDsE. 



.ZEgialites melodus. The Piping Plover is, according to Gosse, an annual 

 visitor, but I have not met it in any of my collections. Mr. Gos.se m^y pos- 

 sibly have mistaken the following species for it. 



103, 260 yEftiALiTEs Waso?, T res. The Thick-billed Plover is easily recog- 

 nised by the bill ; it is one of tl.e permanent residents, and, I think, is more- 

 numerous during the summer than any of the other species of Aegialites ; the 

 migrants generally arrive in September, and depart in the early prat of the 

 following year, leaving, however, numbers widely distributed inland, as well 

 as on the coast. It lays on the bare sand like the Chordeil ', sometimes, but 

 not often, near the cover of some low shrub. J have not met with more than 

 three eggs in a nest; they are in form like the Quails, stone < oior, splashed 

 all over with small spots of bistre and vandyhe brown, and measuring 1.] by 1$. 

 SeVeral species of Ac< aiitcs are said to breed in Saint Elizabeth and West- 

 moreland. A. rod/ems and tcvuirostris may be among them. 



102, 256. iEdALiTES semipalmatus. The. Ring PI vr." <> a summer 

 resident, but is not so numerous as the last species. 1 have collected speci- 

 mens through thi:: spring and summer months, but I have never met with the 

 eggs, though they must certainly breed here, as one of my sons took from 

 one spot in July last, at Gieat Salt Pond, a broken egg perfectly shelled ; it 

 was dark grey apparently without, or with only minute dots. 



The other Plovers, visiting the island in autumn and winter, are 



105, 20-1. Charaduius virginicus. The Golden Plover. , 



99. iEGiALiiKS vocifekus. The Kildeer Plover. 



103, 203. Squatarola helvetica. The Squatting Plover. 



182. LrsiosA? The Horse-eyed Plover. 



I have not met with any of these during the. summer in the south midland 

 district ; the three first are constant annual visitors ; the last is only obtained 

 occasionally. 



IIAlMA TOPODIDJE. 



107, 257. STRErsiLAs isterpkes. The Turnstone is the most abundant of 

 the Orallae found here Ht all season-', and I have met with their eggs more 

 frequently than these of am oilier species -at the seaside on the plains in 

 the mountains. 1 have iound eggs at Healthsliire Great Salt Pond, Passage 

 Fort, and in Sr. John, St. Thomas in the Vale, and on the bank of the Bio 

 Grande, near Mlllbank in Portland. The eggs are deposited on a few dried 

 leaves under low growing shrubs, (on the coast generally under the Surianvx 

 .Maritima ; > they are yellowish, or olive green, coarsely marked and streaked 

 with dark and light brown, and slat^y grey spots intermixed. 



[Mareh 



