THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 469 



Amoor region: bill, -SG in. (22 Tnin.); wings, 646 ins. (164 mon.); 

 tarsus, ] -50 in. (38 onm.). 



The nesting stations of the Asiatic Golden Plover extend from 

 the lower Jenesei eastwards, over all the Tundra regions of northern 

 Asia as far as Behring's Strait. Von Middendorff met Avith it as 

 breeding bird in the Taimyr Peninsula in 74° N. lat., and Dr. Bunge 

 found it on the islands of New Siberia (Ibis, 1888, p. 344). In 

 winter it migrates to India, Australia, and even New Zealand. 

 In addition to the examples which have occurred in Heligoland, 

 it has been killed four times in other parts of Europe, once in 

 Poland by Taczanowsky, twice in Malta (Wright, Ibis, 186-5); and 

 the fourth example was found among other wildfowl in Leadenhall 

 Market in London. 



267.— American Golden Plover [Ameeika^^ischek 

 Goldregenpfeifer]. 



CHARADRIUS VIRGINICUS, Bonaparte. 



Cliaradrius virginicus. Naumann, xiii.; Blusius, Nachtrdge, zyi. 



Cliaradrms marmoratus. Audubon, Syn. of Birds of N. America, 222. 



This third species of Golden Plover I have once obtained here 

 — viz. on the 20th of December 1847. The individual, as one might 

 presuppose from the season of the year at which it was captured, 

 was in winter plumage, and, judging from its thick tarsal joint, 

 appeared to be a young autumn bird. In size it was intermediate 

 between C. auratus and C.fulvus, but had not the thickset shape 

 of the former species, while its wings aad tarsi were even more 

 slender than those of the latter; the wings also projected consider- 

 ably further beyond the tail than in either of the before-mentioned 

 closely related species. The plumage of the example killed was 

 very much faded ; in the feathers of all the upper parts the light 

 marginal spots were of a dull light yellowish-brown, nor indeed could 

 they have ever been of the golden-yellow colour of the yoimg birds 

 of the European and Asiatic species, for even in those portions of 

 the feathers which are covered by two or tlii'ce layers of other 

 feathers, and thus completely protected against the effects of light 

 and air, the colour of the spots was no more than a light dull 

 citron-j'ellow, somewhat similar to the yellow of the marginal spots 

 on the plumage on the upper parts of very handsome young 

 autumn birds of C. squatarola. Richardson and Swainson (Fauna 

 Bor. Americana) also describe the colour of the SJ3ots of the upper 

 parts as citron-yellow, and that of the greater wing-coverts as 

 whitish. 



