CHARADRIID.E — THE PLOVERS — SQUATARULA. 137 



the Arctic coast, July 4. The nest contained four eggs, and was composed of a little 

 withered grass, placed in a depression on the side or face of a very gentle eminence. 

 Both parents were seen, and the male shot. They were at first mistaken for the 

 Golden Plover ; but their note and general appearance soon undeceived him. This 

 was the first of the species he had ever seen during his sojourn in the country. 

 While it may exist on the Arctic coast and in the Barren Grounds, he is quite 

 confident that he never met with it before. The eggs in this instance contained 

 partially developed embryos. On the following day, July 5, 18G4, another nest, 

 containing four eggs also, in the same stage of development, was secured. 



A third nest, with four eggs, was discovered the following night, and a snare was 

 set to secure the parent. The female was taken, but before it was secured, a Snowy 

 Owl devoured the bird and destroyed the eggs. 



In regard to the breeding of this Plover, we learn from Middendorff that he 

 observed none of this species on the Boganida earlier than the 25tli of May. By the 

 26th of June the females. Avere sitting there on their nests, Avhich had been formed 

 by collecting together dried leaves and grasses, and in which were four eggs, which 

 he compares in shape with the eggs of the Lapwing and the Dotterel {Charadrius 

 morinelhis). He gives their average length at 2.10 inches, and their average largest 

 diameter 1.40 inches. They differed very considerably in size, the largest being 2.18 

 inches in length, and the smallest only 1.87 inches. Nor does the color afford any 

 distinctive mark. The ground-color is sometimes yellowish gray and sometimes 

 brownish yellow, the dark-brown spots being like those of the Cli. 'plin'iaUs. Midden- 

 dorff also found this bird breediug on the Byrranga Mountains, in latitude 74°. 



Mr. Dresser describes one of the eggs obtained by Middendorff as measuring 2.07 

 by 1.40 inches, with a ground-color of a dull clay-l)rown, and Ijearing markings 

 distributed over the surface, but collecting together at the larger end, blackish brown 

 in color, and irregular in shape. There were also a few underlying purplish shell- 

 markings. 



Eggs of this species collected by Mr. MacFarlane in an island in Franklin's Bay, 

 on the Arctic coast, in July, 1864, and in 1865, and numbered 11193, 11196, and 

 11199, 8. I., exhibit certain general resemblances to the egg of the more commoii 

 Golden Plover {Ch. virglnkiis). They have, however, certain constant differences 

 which do not readily admit of exact description. These three sets, two of four and 

 one of three eggs, differ from the average egg of the irmjinirus in the more nearly 

 equal distribution of the spots over tli;^ whole egg. In two of these sets the ground 

 color is of a light greenish drab ; in the other the ground is a light rufous drab, 

 without any mixture of green. The spots are of a dark sliade of umber or bistre, 

 and the darkness of the shade is quite uniform, and never iutensified, as in the eggs 

 of the virginicus. They are strongly pyriform in shape, and vary in length from 

 1.90 inches to 2.30, and in breadth from 1.40 to 1.47 inches. They are longer and 

 broader than the virg'mlcus, and their breadth is also proportionally greater. 



Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebolnn, in the summer of 1875. found the Gray Plover 

 breeding on the tundras of the Petchora River, in Xorthern Eussia in Europe, where 

 they procured a rich series of eggs described as intermediate in color between those 

 of the Golden Plover and the Lapwing, and subject to variations, some being much 

 browner, and others more olive, but none so green as the eggs of the Lapwing, 

 nor so orange as those of the Plover. The blotching is in every respect the same, 

 the vmderlying spots equally indistinct, and the surface spots large, especially at the 

 greater end, but occasionally small and scattered. In size they vary from 1.90 by 

 1.35 to 2.20 by 1.40 inches. 



VOL. I. — 18 



