NESTS AA'D EGGS OF AV ST K.M.I AN RIRDS. 789 



pai-ts about the end of October. A correspondent, ^\^•iting to " The 

 Argus, " states that a flock of these Golden Plovers was seen in company 

 with Grej' Plovers at Qucenschfl' one season (1893); and an obsei-ver in 

 the Riverina district supposed that in the space of live seasons he saw 

 pci^haps about 100 bii'ds. Gould states that its habits and general 

 economy so closely r'esemble those of the Golden Plover of Europe that 

 a description of one is characteristic of the other. Like the European 

 bu'd, it frequents open plains in the neighboiu-hood of marshy lands 

 or the sea beach, 111ns with amazing facility, and flies with equal rapidity. 

 Its food consists of insects, slugs, small sea moUusca, and worms. 



Gould's illustration represents a bird as we see it in its " winter " 

 chess diu-ing the Australian summer, and its dress is of a buffy colour, 

 mottled with brown, suggesting the name golden. The mottle is pro- 

 duced by a triangular spot of pale bro\^^l on the tip of each feather. 

 Tlio eyes are dark-brown, with legs and feet leaden colour ; the total lengtli 

 of the bird is about nine inches. When in full breeding plumage in its 

 North Asian habitat, the bird's lores, side of the face, breast, and all 

 the under surface are conspicuously black. The eggs are pear-shaped, 

 of a very pale buff, with a. faint gieenish tinge, and richly marked with 

 sepia ; length nearly two inches, by a breadth of about one and a qiiarter 

 inches. The finding of the fii-st nest and eggs of the Lesser Golden 

 Plover, in latitude 69i deg., Yenisei, Siberia, is so interesting that I 

 give Mr. Seebohm's own words from his "Siberia in Asia" : — "The tundra 

 was hilly, with lakes, swamps, and bogs in the wide valleys and plains. 

 As soon as I reached the flat bogs I heard the plaintive cry of a Plover, 

 and presently caught sight of two birds. The male was very conspicuous, 

 but all my attempts to follow the female with my glass, in order to trace 

 her to the nest, proved ineffectual ; she was too nearly the coloiu" of the 

 gi'ound, and the herbage was too high. Feeling convinced that I was 

 witliin thirty paces of the nest, I shot the male, and commenced a diligent 

 seai-ch. The bird proved to be the Asiatic Lesser Golden Plover ; and 

 I detemiined to devote at least an hour looking for the nest. By a 

 wonderfid piece of good fortune I found it, with fovu- eggs, in less than 

 five minutes. It was merely a hollow in the ground upon a piece of 

 turfy land, overgrown with moss and lichen, and was lined with broken 

 stalks of reindeer moss." 



In the latest classification (Catalogue of Birds of the British 

 Museum), Dr. Sharpe amalgamated tJie Lesser Golden Plover with the 

 American bird, the difference between the two varieties being so very 

 slight. Tlie American race is said to be a trifle larger, breeds in summer 

 on the moors above the forest growth from Alaska to Greenland, and 

 migi-ates to winter in South America. Accoi'ding to Seebohm the eggs 

 of the American Golden Plover are absolutely indistinguishable from 

 those of the Lesser or Asiatic Golden Plover. 



