CHARADRIID/E. 



545 



THE KILLDEER PLOVER. 



.'Egialitis voci'fera (Linnaeus). 



In 1862 a mounted example of this American bird was identified 

 by Mr. P. L. Sclater, who was informed by Mr. J. R. Wise that it 

 had been killed in April 1859 (in the ' Ibis' 1862, p. 276, the year 

 was erroneously given as 1857) near Christchurch in Hampshire ; 

 but as corroborative evidence of this was wanting and the specimen 

 had changed hands during the interval, I did not consider it advis- 

 able to include the species in the 4th Edition of 'Yarrell.' On 

 January 15th 1885, as stated in the preface to the above work, Mr. 

 Jenkinson shot a bird, which I afterwards examined, at Tresco in 

 the Scilly Islands (Zool. 1885, p. 113). 



The Killdeer Plover has not yet been recognized on the mainland 

 of Europe, though, according to Mr. J. Y. Johnson, it has been 

 obtained on the island of Madeira. In America it is widely dis- 

 tributed, breeding from the plains of the Saskatchewan (where it 

 arrives about April 20th) southward as far as Mexico ; its migrations 

 extending to the Bermudas, the West Indies generally, and tropical 

 America down to Colombia. In California and the southern portion 

 of the United States it is resident or only partially migratory ; while 

 even as far north as Long Island it has been met with up to the end 

 of November and often makes its re-appearance quite early in the 



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