EUROPEAN GOLDEN PLOVER 171 



Kaalualu, Hawaii (Henshaw). Although seemingly on the regular 

 migration route, the only records for Arkansas are two specimens 

 taken at Fort Smith, September 19, 1892. 



Egg dates. — Bering Sea coast of Alaska : 24 records, May 27 to 

 June 4; 16 records. May 29 and 30, Arctic coasts of Alaska and 

 Canada : 26 records, June 10 to July 11 ; 13 records, June 28 to 

 July 5. 



PLUVIALIS APRICARIA ALTIFRONS (Brehm) 

 EUROPEAN GOLDEN PLOVER 



Gontrihuted hy Francis Charles Robert Jourdain 

 HABITS 



The claim of the golden plover of Europe to a place in the Ameri- 

 can list rests on its occurrence not infrequently in Greenland. The 

 latest authority on Greenland birds, Mr. E. Lehn Schioler, in his 

 great work Danmarks FuglQ (vol. 2), refers the Greenland birds to 

 the northern race of European golden plover, Pluvialis ajyi^car^us 

 altifrons (Brehm) . It is now generally agreed that there are two races 

 of this species, and that the black breast is more strongly developed 

 on the northern form, while the southern race, P. aprlcarius apri- 

 carius (Linnaeus) has only a marbling of black on the breast in 

 spring. In Greenland it has occurred both on the east and west 

 sides, but has not been proved to breed there though suspected of 

 doing so. 



Spring. — In the British Isles the northern golden plovers are 

 said by Abel Chapman to arrive in Northumberland as early as mid 

 February, spreading over the lower ground and remaining in packs, 

 while the breeding birds arrive later and are soon distributed over 

 the moors in pairs. While the southern birds remain on the moor- 

 lands to breed, the northern visitors pass on to their nesting grounds 

 in the Faroes, Iceland, and Scandinavia. 



Courtship. — Our information is, as might be expected, scanty, 

 owing to the inaccessible nature of its breeding ground and its re- 

 tiring habits. Abel Chapman (1889) describes the loud wild spring 

 call, which he renders as tirr-pee-you.^ and adds that after this has 

 ceased one hears only the well-known plaintive pipe of alarm and a 

 peculiar rippling song or warble which is wholly indescribable. 

 This, he says, is the joyous note of courtship and is analogous to the 

 drumming of the snipe, etc. A fuller description is that of Seton 

 Gordon (1915) who writes as follows: 



During the season of courtship and indeed up to June is heard the song of 

 the golden plover and this song is one of the most striking things in the habita 



