194 BULLETIN lie, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ocean; many individuals may become lost or perish, but the majority 

 of them seem to find their way by some marvelous sense of direction. 

 The reader is referred to an excellent paper on the migration of this 

 plover to and from the Hawaiian Islands by Dr. Henry W. Henshaw 

 (1910). Of the spring migration he writes: 



During the last two months of their stay in the islands both the migrating 

 plover and turustones get very fat, and it is probable that individuals that are 

 not in good condition do not attempt the flight, or if they do, do not survive the 

 attempt. Toward April most plover seem to be in full breeding plumage, and I 

 feel sure that none of the birds assuming the breeding dress remain behind 

 unless sick or wounded. There is, however, a small contingent, both of plover 

 and turnstones, that summer in the islands, and these appear to consist wholly 

 of immature individuals, which, as a rule, are thin and not In good trim. 



When the time to migrate comes, small parties, from a dozen or even less to 

 flocks of 200 or more, strike boldly out to the northward, apparently without 

 hesitancy or doubt of the result. Mr. Haswell, of Papaikou, which is on the 

 coast about 15 miles north of Hilo, soon after daybreak during the early days of 

 April, 1900, saw several flocks rise to a great height and, after widely circling 

 about a few times as if to orient themselves, finally disappear in a northerly 

 direction. 



It is probable, however, that day migration is not the rule with plover and 

 other shore birds. Apparently it is more usual for the flocks to feed by day and 

 leave just before nightfall, as do many other birds in different parts of the 

 world. Mr. R. C. L. Perkins states that several times he "witnessed these 

 departures always late in the afternoon or just before dark." 



How fast the birds fly or how long it takes them to make the 2,000 

 mile flight across the ocean to the Aleutian Islands, we do not Imow. 

 If they fly at the rate of 40 miles an hour without stopping, it would 

 take over two days. They probably can not sustain such a prolonged 

 effort without food. Practically all shore birds are known to alight 

 on and arise from the water at will ; so the chances are that they stop 

 to rest on the way. They probably obtain some food from floating 

 masses of seaweed, from the refuse left by whales, or from the numer- 

 ous forms of minute animal life to be found on the surface. These 

 birds have frequently been seen migrating at sea hundreds of miles 

 from land, and one observer has actually seen one resting on the 

 water. Evidence that they do so is furnished by the fact that native 

 gimners in Trinidad, according to some notes sent to me by Julian 

 Lyder, detect the newly arrived birds by a salty taste on the feathers. 



The plover leave the Hawaiian Islands during April and May. 

 We have no data as to when they reach the Aleutian Islands, but 

 they arrive in the Commander Islands about the middle of May, and 

 the first arrivals were noted at Nijni Kolymsk, Siberia, on May 30. 

 On the Pribilof Islands they have been known to arrive as early as 

 April 18, but they usually come about the first week in May. A. H. 

 Twitchell tells me that he has seen them at Bethel, Alaska, as early 



