PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER 197 



Mr. Koren watched the habits of the birds closely and found that the 

 males appear to do all the incubating in the early stages, the female at that 

 time never being near the nest. Later on, when the eggs are nearly ready 

 to hatch, she appears again and takes her turn with the male. When the 

 young are hatched, both parent birds are always with them. At Cape Che- 

 lakhskai, August 27, 1912, large flocks of young birds were seen ready to 

 migrate. 



Miss Haviland (1915a) says: 



As soon as the young ones were able to run alone, which, roughly speaking, 

 was about July 20, the birds left the higher ground and began to collect into 

 flocks in the marshy places of the tundra. I am inclined to think that the 

 young birds must need to wash and drink a great deal, as otherwise it is not 

 easy to understand why all the waders of the tundra should leave the nesting 

 sites so early and wander down to the sphagnum swamps. Some of the 

 Asiatic golden plover even crossed the mud hills and came down to the banks 

 of the river. 



Plumages. — The downy young Pacific golden plover is like the 

 American bird of the same age except that the yellow is rather 

 brighter, about "lemon chrome," and decidedly more extensive; it 

 predominates over the black on the crown, back, and rump ; there is 

 very little white anywhere except in the patch under the eye and 

 on the chin, throat, and under parts. Miss Haviland (1915a), how- 

 ever, says: 



The white tract between the homogeneous mottling of the crown and nape, 

 and the successive black and yellow bands which lie above and behind the eye, 

 and which in C. apricarius is sometimes hardly discernible, is very pronounced 

 in C. fulvus and has enlarged at the expense of the colored bands below it. 

 The nape and upper part of the body are more spotted v\'ith v.-hite, and there 

 is little or no yellow on the cheek below the eye. 



Subsequent plumages and molts are apparently similar to those 

 of the other golden plovers. Doctor Henshaw (1910) writes: 



It is of interest to note that in fall this plover migrates before it molts; in 

 spring it molts before it migrates. The first birds to reach the archipelago in 

 August are, as stated, adults, and while they are practically in full breeding 

 dress they begin to molt into the winter dress almost at once. The molting 

 season for the species is long, and many individuals, doubtless birds of the 

 year, may be found the last of December still molting into the fall and winter 

 dress. By the middle of February numerous individuals are already begin- 

 ning to molt a second time and to assume the distinctive nuptial plumage, 

 which, in the case of these early birds, is practically completed during the month 

 of March, though individuals continue to moult far into April and some no 

 doubt complete the final stages in Alaska. Doubtless the individuals to molt 

 first ii^ spring are the adults which arrive first, and finish the fall molt first; 

 and doubtless, too, these are the birds first to leave Hav>'aii for their breeding 

 grounds in Alaska. So protracted is the molt of the species that it is probably 

 true that during the stay of this plover in Hawaii — from middle August till 

 May — there is not a month when some individuals are not molting. 



There is no reason for believing that the plover summering in the islands 

 which, as before stated, are chiefly if not wholly immature birds, participate 



