196 BULLETIN 14 6;, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



to be the Asiatic golden plover, with gray axillaries, aud I determined to 

 devote at least an hour looking for the nest. By a wonderful piece of good 

 fortune I found it, with four eggs, in less than five minutes. It was merely 

 a hollow in the ground upon a piece of turfy land, overgrown with moss and 

 lichen, and was lined with broken stalks of reindeer moss. The eggs more 

 resembled those of the golden than those of the grey plover, but were smaller 

 than either. 



Miss Maud D. Haviland (1915«) had considerable experience 

 with this plover on the Yenesei and took some excellent photographs 

 of it ; she writes : 



I first saw a few birds at Dudinka, where they were probably on migration, 

 and afterwards the species was common all the way down to Golchika. Each 

 pair occupied perhaps 2 furlongs of tundra. I should think that every acre 

 of moss and lichen from the Yenesei to the Lena in summer is thus parceled 

 out. Your progress across the tundra in July is heralded and attended by a 

 chorus of plaintive cries. Both birds meet you a quarter of a mile from the 

 nest and never leave you until you are at the boundaries of their own terri- 

 tory, and they can safely hand you over to their next neighbors for espionage. 

 Covert, of course, there is none — but it is needless to say more. The suspi- 

 ciousness and patience of the golden plover are the same all the world over; 

 and I will not dwell upon them to those who themselves have no doubt 

 walked vainly for half a day about the bird's breeding grounds in this country 

 and listened to its maddening but at the same time most musical protests. 



The first nest was found on July 4. It was a shallow depression, lined with 

 dry lichen haulms on a slope of the tundra. The bird, which must, I think, 

 either have been deaf or else exceedingly stupid, did not move until I was well 

 over the hill and within 60 yards of her, when she jumped up and feigned a 

 broken wing. 



Eggs. — The eggs are similar to those of the American golden 

 plover; the gxound colors average paler. In three sets they run 

 from " light buff " to " cream color " ; Mr. Brandt's eggs run from 

 " ivory yellow " to " vinaceous buff " ; and in two eggs figured by 

 Mr. Poynting (1895) the ground colors are in shades of "olive 

 buff." Mr, Brandt says in his notes : 



The eggs of this bird are no doubt subject to much variation for the two 

 sets are very different. On one the surface markings are distinct and elongated 

 longitudinally while on the other clutch large blotches almost cover the larger 

 end. These spots are brownish black to black where the pigment is rich, but 

 when occasionally it is thin, as on a few outlying edges, it becomes brick red. 

 Pursuant to the usual rule with many of the boldly marked eggs of the shore 

 birds the underlying spots are few and ill defined. These are in lavender tones 

 from pale mouse gray to grayish lavender. 



The measurements of 34. eggs average 48 by 33.2 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 51.8 by 32.5, 48.5 by 34.9, 

 45.2 by 32.4, and 46.4 by 31.5 millimeters. 



Young. — The incubation period is probably the same as it is 

 for the European bird, 27 days; both sexes incubate the eggs and 

 care for the young. Thayer and Bangs (1914) write: 



