BIRDS OF ICELAND 83 



Einged-Plover seems to occur singly. I do not know 

 if any authentic Icelandic specimens are in existence, 

 but there is a diminutive race of ^. hiaticula which, 

 on the score of size, has often passed muster as 

 ^. curonica ; and the mention of the two in company 

 above rather points to this, especially as the true 

 ^^. curonica is more an inland and fresh- water bird 

 than one of the sea-coasts. Still, of course, it has to 

 reach the sea-coasts first, on migration. However, I 

 think that a little further evidence is desirable. The 

 Lesser Einged-Plover is slender in build, only 6 J inches 

 long, with a wing of 4J inches, and has the shaft of the 

 first primary only white, of the rest dusky. In 

 Aj. Ihiaticulcc there are patches of white on the shafts 

 of all the primaries.] 



Charadrius pluvialis, Linn. 

 Golden Plover. 



Native names : 'Loa,' ' L6,' ' HeiSloa,' ' Heiloa,' ' Heilo.' 



A summer visitor in great numbers, breeding or. 

 fells and hills ' from the centre all down to the sea ' ; 

 fiockincj in Auf^just, and then beoinnincj to work down 

 towards the sea-coast, leaving the country during 

 September or the first week of October. One of the 

 commonest birds in Iceland, and met with everywhere 

 — its plaintive whistle, musical as it is, becoming 

 wearisome in time from the way in which the birds 

 dog you and incessantly repeat it. I found a nestling 

 only a few days old, near 'Asbyrgi, on August 8 



