252 BULLETIN 146^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



December 19, 1927 (letter, J. H. Bowles), and so may winter rarely 

 in that region. 



Spring migration. — But little information is available concerning 

 the migration of the snowy plover. Early dates of spring arrival 

 are: Kansas, McPherson, April 14, and Douglas County, April 22; 

 Utah, Salt Lake County, May 3; Oregon, Corvallis, March 24, and 

 Malheur Lake, April 20; and Washington, Grays Harbor, April 7. 



Fall migration. — The few available late dates of fall departure 

 are: Washington, Point Chehalis, November 18; and northern Cali- 

 fornia, San Francisco, November 1, and Alameda, December 3. 



Casual records. — The snowy plover has been detected outside of 

 its normal range on a few occasions. Among these are: Brazil 

 (Specimen in United States National Museum) ; southern Chile 

 (Coquimbo, Straits of Magellan in June [Sharpe] ) ; Ontario, 

 Toronto, one specimen in May, 1880, and another on July 6, 1897 

 (Fleming) ; Nebraska, two specimens at Lincoln, May 17, 1903 

 (Swenk) ; Wyoming, one taken near Cheyenne (Knight) ; while a 

 specimen from Kodiak Island, Alaska, reported by Schalow (1891) 

 as Charadrius alexandrinus, may be this species'. 



Egg dates. — California: 155 records, April 2 to July 28; 78 rec- 

 ords. May 5 to June 14. Utah : 5 records, April 30 to June 15. 



[Author's note. — The above distribution includes both North 

 American races. Probably the birds found breeding east of the 

 Rocky Mountains and wintering on eastern coasts will prove to be 

 referable to tenuirostris, but there are not enough specimens available 

 from these localities to outline definitely the ranges of the two races.] 



CHARADRIUS NIVOSUS TENUIROSTRIS (Lawrence) 

 CUBAN SNOWY PLOVER 



HABITS 



The snowy plover which breeds on the Gulf coasts of Texas, 

 Louisiana, and Florida, as well as in Cuba, the Bahamas, and a few 

 places in the interior has been separated from the Pacific coast form 

 under the above name. The difference between the two forms is 

 not easily recognized, but the eastern bird is said to be much paler 

 and may average a trifle smaller. The habits of the two seem to 

 be similar. N. S. Goss (1891) found this bird breeding on the salt 

 plains along the Cimarron River, Indian Territory, in 1886. Herbert 

 W. Brandt sent me some notes on a nest found by him in Nueces 

 County, Tex. Francis M. Weston writes to me that it is common 

 and breeds near Pensacola, Fla. He says of its notes : 



When on the ground the Cuban snowy plover gives a low-pitched, musical 

 whistle, roughly indicated by the words pe-wee-ah or o-tcee-ah, the accent being 



