PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER 199 



action of the burrowing owL If agitated lie ran rapidly to and fro, uttering an 

 occasional piping note, but seldom taking wing. 



Voice. — John T. Nichols describes the notes of this plover very well 

 as follows: 



I liave met this western race of the golden plover only on its breeding grounds 

 (at Nome, Alaska) where its notes are quite unlike the flight note of the eastern 

 bird in migration, though some have almost an identical quality with that call. 

 Running about on the ground, voicing noisy protest at the invasion of its ground, 

 it has two unlike cries used interchangeably, peep! etc.; toodlee, etc.; the first 

 plaintive, the second mellow. Other less frequent uotes are tudleu and 

 tdlu-eep suggesting the semipalmated plover. When the two members of a pair 

 alight together for a moment a note of greeting suggests in form the whip-poor- 

 will's call, pitertoeeu, piterweeu, pitertc-it or pecpcr%oip, pcepertceeu, peepcnoip. 



A different, sti'ikiug note is associated with what seems' to be nuptial display. 

 A bird cu'cles at moderate height waving widespread wings in slow, measured, 

 tern-like manner, meanwhile uttering a loud, long-drawn, sweet pee-er-%vee, and 

 in a few minutes dives to the tundra and alights. The form of this call is rather 

 that of the black-bellied plover though its tone is that of the golden. 



Miss Haviland (1915a) describes similar notes and observes that, 

 " roughly speaking, the alarm note of the common golden plover is 

 monosyllabic; that of the Asiatic golden plover is dissyllabic; and 

 that of the gray plover is distinctly trisyllabic in character. 



Fall. — The plover which breed in Alaska migrate over Bering Sea, 

 stopping on the Pribilof Islands; the first birds, probably adults, 

 come during August ; the young birds come later, mainly in Septem- 

 ber and October, with one very late date, November 5. The few 

 available dates for the Aleutian and Commander Islands are also late, 

 September and October, probably young birds. The first birds to 

 reach the Hawaiian Islands are adults in breeding plumage; they 

 arrive about the middle or latter part of August; and Doctor 

 Henshaw (1910) says "that they are invariably in good flesh and 

 that some are very fat. Later arrivals, however, no doubt young of 

 the year, are comparatively poor in flesh and require considerable 

 time to fatten." This flight to these islands is a most remarkable 

 feat, for, even granted that they can rest and feed to some extent on 

 the surface of the ocean, it still remains a mystery how they can find 

 this little group of islands in the middle of such a vast expanse of 

 ocean. Doctor Henshaw (1910) makes some suggestions wliich 

 throw some light on the subject; he says: 



About September the wind that prevails in the North Pacific immediately 

 south of the Aleutians is from the northwest. It is generally believed that 

 migrating birds prefer to fiy on a beam wind. By heading southwest birds 

 migrating to Hawaii might have the northwest abeam till about the neighbor- 

 hood of latitude 30° where they would be almost sure to pick up the northeast 

 trades. By then changing their course to southeast they would be enabled to 

 fly with wind abeam till they sighted the islands. The Hawaiian Archipelago 

 with the chain of low islands and sand spits to the northwest afford a reasonable 

 2316—29 14 



