MIGRATION OF PACIFIC PLOVER HENSHAW. 551 



ceptecl by the transport, the incident would be vabiable as affording 

 a tolerable idea of the limit of the endurance and wing power of a 

 plover. The bird, however, may have lost its way and have taken 

 a very indirect course to the point where it was first seen from the 

 ship. Unaware of the proximity of the islands to which it was 

 bound, and which it might have reached in a few hours more, it 

 became confused, and made the fatal mistake of following the ship's 

 course. Before it finally succumbed to fatigue, it followed the ship 

 for about 500 miles. Thus at the least calculation it flew 2,500 miles 

 before it succumbed to fatigue, and jDrobably very much farther. 



Time of arrival of migrants in Alaska. — As the migration of the 

 plover (and also the turnstone) from the islands begins during April 

 and continues till into May, and possibly even later, the birds should 

 arrive in Alaska at corresponding dates, the flight probably con- 

 suming not much more than two days. As a matter of fact, however, 

 the mainland breeding grounds of the plover in Alaska are snow- 

 bound till well into May, and Turner states that the Pacific plover 

 does not arrive at St. Michael till about June 1, a statement cor- 

 roborated by Nelson. Although there is no necessary precise corre- 

 spondence between the breeding time of the Pacific plover in Siberia 

 and in Alaska, it is interesting to note the statement of Seebohm 

 that the plover arrives on the Yenesay River, Siberia, June 5; and, 

 referring to water birds generally, he adds that " very few eggs are 

 laid on the tundra before the last week of June." (Geog. Dist. of the 

 Charadriidse, 1888, p. 58.) AVliere the plover and turnstone, which 

 leave Hawaii early in April, spend the interval till the melting snow 

 bares the hillsides in Alaska and exposes the previous season's crop 

 of Vaccinium and Empetrum berries, upon which the plover in 

 spring chiefly feed, is left to conjecture. As the Aleutian chain is 

 nearly 1,200 miles long, however, and as comparatively little is known 

 of its birds in spring, it is possible that early migrating shore birds 

 sojourn on them until advancing summer prepares the mainland for 

 their occupancy. This conjecture is to some extent supported by 

 the statement by Elliott that a few straggling plover land on the 

 Pribilofs in April, or early in May, on their way north to breed, 

 but never remain long. 



Breeding range of the golden plover. — ^Without doubt the chief 

 breeding ground of the Pacific plover is eastern Siberia, but a con- 

 siderable number breed on the American coast of Bering Sea from 

 the vicinity of Bristol Bay (where taken by McKay at Nushagak, 

 June, 1881) to near Bering Straits. The plover breeding on Kotze- 

 bue Sound, north of the straits, is dominions (Grinnell), as also is 

 the one breeding at Point Barrow (Murdock). Apparently fuhyus 

 does not breed at all in the interior of Alaska, these regions being 

 occupied solely by dominicus. It concerns us to note in passing that, 



