198 BULLETIN 14G^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



lu the spring molt. At all events the Hawaiian summer plover and turnstones 

 that I have seen were, without exception, in the winter garb. 



Food. — Liicien M. Turner (1886) says that, on their first arrival 

 in Alaska, tlie plover " feed principally on berries of the Yacciniv/m 

 and Empeti^m., as many of these berries do not dislodge until suc- 

 ceeding growths push them off." Others have noted the same habit 

 in late summer and early fall. Some observers on the Pribilof 

 Islands have noted that they frequent the killing grounds and feed 

 extensively on the blowfly maggots there. But Preble and McAtee 

 (1923) say that in the two stomachs that they examined "none of 

 these larvae were found, their food contents consisting of beetles, 72.5 

 per cent; flies, 22,5 per cent; Hymenoptera, 4 per cent; and seeds 

 of crowberry {Em'petruin nigtniTii), 1 per cent." 



Doctor Henshaw (1910) writes: 



During its stay in the islands the plover, as also the turnstone, feed chiefly 

 in the upland pastures and clearings, up to 6,000 or 7,000 feet, and on newly 

 plowed cane land. Both the sugar planter and the stock raiser have much 

 to thank the plover for, since, while the birds feed on small seeds to some 

 extent, they live chiefly on insects, and according to Perkins, on insects of 

 much economic importance, since they depend largely on the caterpillars of two 

 of the most widely spread and destructive of the island " cut worms." These 

 insects are most abundant when the grass on the island pastures is green and 

 luxuriant, and this usually is in winter, when rains are most copious. 



Behavior. — The general behavior of the Pacific golden plover is 

 not different from that of its commoner relatives. My personal ac- 

 quaintance with it was made on the high rolling tundra and the f oot« 

 hills back of Nome, Alaska. Here we found it quite common during 

 the middle of July', where it was evidently breeding or had been 

 breeding; and we collected quite a series of adults, juvenals, and 

 even downy young. As we walked over the tundra, we frequently 

 heard their rich, melodious, whistling notes, or saw a richly colored 

 adult, in full nuptial plumage, standing like a sentinel on some little 

 hurmnock or ridge. Occasionally one would try to entice us away 

 by running slowly through the hollows or by fluttering along the 

 ground as if injured; but eventually it would take wing and circle 

 back to where its young were probably hidden. 



Mr. Brandt says in his notes : 



The Pacific golden plover's adroit movements in approaching his nest, made to 

 deceive the hostile eye, were interesting, and well illustrate the tactics of the 

 members of the plover family found about Hooper Bay. He would run rapidly 

 without visible bodily effort, and then stop abruptly and remain motionl«is, not 

 even turning his head. His course always lay across the little ridges, never 

 along them, and he would follow the slight depressions, but usually came to a 

 halt on a little eminence. When close to me, in order to get a wider range of 

 vision, he would raise himself on the terminal joints of his toes and stretch up 

 his neck, all with a jerky motion, the whole reminding me somewhat of the 



