AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER 185 
AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER 
Charadrius dominicus 
Above brownish black, with numerous irregular spots of yellow ; 
forehead, superciliary stripe, and sides of neck white ; beneath black ; 
crissum whitish; axillaries smoky grey; bill black; feet dark grey ; 
length 10.5, wing 7 inches. Female similar. Young, beneath dirty 
white, with greyish freckles. 
Tuts closely allied representative of the Golden 
Plover of Europe, from which it is distinguishable 
mainly by its rather larger size and smoky-grey 
axillaries, visits South America after its breeding 
season in the north. 
The American Golden Plover is abundant and 
well known to every one by its native name Chorlo 
throughout Southern Argentina. Its wild, clear notes 
are first heard about the last week in August; and 
among the first comers many individuals are seen 
still wearing the nuptial dress. After their long 
journey from the Arctic regions they are lean and 
not worth shooting ; two months later they become 
excessively fat, and are then much appreciated by 
gourmets. But although so regular in their arrival 
they do not regularly visit the same localities every 
season; the bird may be abundant in a place one 
year and scarce or absent altogether the next. Dur- 
ing the spring, from September to December, they 
prefer open plains with short grass and in the neigh- 
bourhood of wet or marshy ground; at the end of 
December, when the giant thistle (Carduus mariana), 
which often covers large areas of country, has been 
