178 BULLETIN 14 6^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Another theory advanced by Prof. ^'Vells W. Cooke (1912), into 

 which the facts seem to fit equally well, is that — 



Birds follow that route between the winter and summer homes that is the 

 shortest and at the same time furnishes an abundant food supply. The plover 

 seeks the shortest treeless route overland, and alighting on the coast of Texas 

 travels leisurely over the Mississippi Valley prairies, which are abundantly 

 supplied with food, to the plains of the Saskatchewan, and thence to the Arctic 

 coast. Not until Texas is reached can the movements of the golden plover be 

 definitely traced, and at no place between Peru and Texas has it ever been 

 recorded as common. In fact, the records as they stand are what they should 

 be if the plover escapes the forested regions of northern South America and 

 Central America by a single flight of from 2,000 to 2,500 miles from the valleys 

 of eastern Peru to the treeless prairies of Texas. 



The golden plover is practically unknown west of the Kocky Moun- 

 tains in the spring; it has always been a rare straggler on the Atlantic 

 coast at this season; and even as far east as Ohio it rarely occurs. 

 Its main route is through the prairie regions west of the Mississippi 

 Eiver. I have seen what was probably the last of the migration, 

 during the first week of May, along the coastal prairies of Texas, and 

 have watched the late spring flight in Saskatchewan during the last 

 week in May; probably I missed the heaviest part of the flight in both 

 cases. On May 26 to 28, 1917, while driving about Quill Lake, Sas- 

 katchewan, I had a good chance to observe a considerable flight of 

 these beautiful birds, all apparently in full spring plumage. The 

 flocks appeared from the southward during the early forenoon, flying 

 swiftly in ever-changing formations, rising to a height of 30 or 40 

 feet and then sweeping low close to the ground. They all seemed 

 to follow the same course over the burnt-over prairies and the freshly 

 plowed and harrowed lands near the shore of the lake. Occasionally 

 a flock would stop and scatter about to feed ; their black bellies and 

 golden-spangled backs were surprisingly inconspicuous on the black 

 ground and among the yellow stubble. They w^ere very shy and rest- 

 less, constantly on the move, and if followed up too closely they were 

 on the wing again and soon disappeared over the northern horizon. 

 It was almost impossible to approach them on foot when they were 

 on the ground, though a flock would occasionally fly by within gun- 

 shot. One that I shot on the ground was 75 paces away, measured 

 distance. Some of the flocks were accompanied by a few buff -breasted 

 sandpipers. 



Professor Eowan ( 11)26) says that in Alberta : 



The arrival of this species at our lake is precipitate, for there may be none 

 to-day and hundreds to-morrow. The flocks would appear to arrive by night, for 

 they are there at daybreak, when one usually takes the first walk around. They 

 are not birds of the shore line in the spring, but like the buff -breasted sandpiper, 

 they seem nevertheless chiefly to frequent country adjacent to some large lake. 

 This, together with their mode of arrival, in considerable flocks and evidently 

 at night, suggests that they have traveled a considerable distance from their 



