88 lUllTlSII BIRDS. [vol. ix. 



even crossed the mud-hills and came doA\ n to the banks 

 of the river. 



I spent the night of August 1st on the tundra. 

 In one tract of marsh about half-a-mile square there 

 were not only four or five pairs of these Plover, 

 \\-liich evidently had young ones in the neighbourhood, 

 but overhead a flock of eight or nine more birds was 

 wheeling. I do not think that these latter were nesting, 

 and am inclined to think that they may have been 

 non-breeding birds. If so, there must have been some 

 movement about that time, for I did not notice such 

 flocks at any time during July or later in August until 

 towards the end of the month.* 



On August 5tli, I shot a female of the year by the 

 Golchika river. It was fully-fledged except for a Uttle 

 coronal of down, and was accompanied by the parent. 

 According to Seebohmf : " Young in first plumage 

 resemble adults in spring plumage on their up])er-])arts, 

 except that the tail-feathers, instead oi being dark bro\\n 

 Avith transverse bars, are uniform dark brown with 

 marginal yellow spots." The mantle is more deeply 

 spotted with yellow than that of the parent, and the 

 breast is not black but resembles that of the old bird or 



* Since the above was written, I have found the following note on 

 the Grey Plover {Squatarola squaiarola) by ]\Iessrs. Seebohni and 

 Harvie-Brown {Ibis 187(), p. 222) : " The males associate in small 

 parties of three or four whilst the females are sitting : they rise to a 

 great height and dash about in erratic curves, or dive down impetuously 

 and rapidly rise again . . . flying with long tern-like sweeps of their 

 wings . . . utter their musical treble note." 



.Although in the case of the Golden Plover mentioned above, the 

 young were hatched, it has occurred to me that what I noticed in C. 

 /u.'t'ws may be the same thing that Messrs. Harvie-Rrown and Seebohm 

 recorded of S. squatarola. but whether the birds in the flock were males 

 or females and whether they were the mates of those whicli were tending 

 the young in the marsh. I do not know. In the latter case there must 

 have been eiglit or nine broods at least in the area. In this connection 

 it may be worth mentioning that on July Kith and two following days, 

 just about the time that the young were hatching, I saw also parties 

 of Little Stints slvinmiing (^xcitcdly aliout th(> mai'shes. Duiiiig the 

 incubation-period such flights were not seen. Two birds that I shot 

 from two such flocks were both females. IMr. Trevor- Hattye (Ice- 

 hound on Kolqucv) mentions very similar flocks of Little Stints on 

 Kolguev during the nesting-season. 



t Cited by Howard Saunders, Manna/ oi lirilisli liinis, p. ')'>0. 



