258 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



Plumage. — Adults in Summer: Forehead, broad 

 stripe over and behind eye and continuing down side of 

 neck and breast, pure white; croii'ii, hack of neck, back, 

 and shoulders, hiackish-hi-ozcn, streaked on crown and 

 back of neck, and each feather of rest of upper parts 

 sharply indented all around with golden yellow ; wing- 

 coverts and secondaries, more brownish, but showing 

 some golden-yellow spotting; primaries, plain dusky- 

 gray darkening at tips and whitening at base, but no 

 pronounced white areas as in the Black-breasted Plover ; 

 tail, white with brownish bars ; lores, throat, side of 

 head in front of white stripe, breast, and under parts, 

 pure brownish-black ; bill, dusky ; feet, lead color ; eye, 

 large and lustrous brown. Adults in Winter: Above, 

 somewhat as in summer but colors less intense ; more 

 greenish-yellow and paler brown ; sides of head, neck, 

 breast, and under parts in general, brownish or grayish- 

 white, narrowly streaked on sides of head and throat, 

 mottled on neck, breast, and abdomen, with dark 



grayish-brown ; an obscure dusky stripe behind eye ; 

 bill, legs, and eye as in summer. Young : Above, 

 dusky mottled with dull whitish spots, becoming yellow 

 on the rump : below, ashy, deeper on lower neck and 

 breast. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: A slight depression in the 

 moss or ground. Eggs: 4, creamy-white to buffy- 

 brovvn. spotted boldly with blotches of brown and 

 black. 



Distribution. — North and South America ; breeds 

 from K(j(zcbue Sound along the Arctic coast to mouth 

 of the Mackenzie, and from Melville Island, Wellington 

 Channel, and Melville Peninsula south to northwestern 

 Hudson Bay; winters on the pampas of Brazil and 

 Argentina ; migrates south across the Atlantic from 

 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick ; a few pass south 

 through the Mississippi valley, and all migrate north by 

 this route: in migration to California. Greenland, and 

 Bermuda ; formerly abundant, now becoming rare. 



In the Golden Plover we have a noble and 

 beautiful species which has woefully decreased 

 in numbers and may even be in danger of ex- 

 termination. Its wonderful migrations have been 

 much written about. Breeding along the Arctic 

 coasts of northwestern North America, the 



Golden Plovers in August proceed eastward to 

 Labrador, and down the coast to the peninsula 

 of Nova Scotia. Thence they launch forth over 

 the open Atlantic, straight south, passing several 

 hundred miles off the New England coast, unless 

 drl\-en ashore by easterly gales. Continuing, they 



Courtesy of Ameruan Museum of Natural History 

 GOLDEN PLOVER 

 (Winter plumage) 

 A noble and beautiful species which has woefully decreased in numbers 



