MIGEATION OF PACIFIC PLOVER HENSHAW. 559 



under certain circumstances the habit of migration can be and is 

 overcome. Of the isLand plover all we can say is that, so far as we 

 can see, its spring migration to its Arctic breeding grounds is not 

 necessary, except in so far as made so by the tjTanny of habit. 



This explanation has at least the advantage that it explains noth- 

 ing, and hence leaves the problem open. It simplj'' shifts slightly 

 the point of view. We perceive that the island attractions have 

 proved sufficiently strong to make permanent residents of certain 

 species wdiich have strayed to the archipelago. In the case of other 

 strays, like the island j^lover and the turnstone, either the island 

 attractions are not so strong or the birds' love for their original 

 habitat is stronger, and they continue to migrate, though with much 

 danger and at a great cost in lives. 



Before leaving this subject I must add that several independent 

 observers have reported finding a few young plover and tumstones 

 in summer on the coast of Kau, island of Hawaii, and at one time I 

 thought it possible that a few curlews also remained to breed ; but in 

 the case of none of these species was I able to fully satisfy myself 

 that the birds reported were nestlings. It is, however, not impossible 

 that occasionally a disabled female plover, tattler, turnstone, or curlew 

 secures a mate and nests in Hawaii. Indeed, it seems highly prob- 

 able that it is in this accidental sort of way that new avian colonies 

 are occasionally planted. Such, indeed, may be the explanation of the 

 resident colonies of American species like the coot, gallinule, and 

 others above referred to. Possibly, too, young birds of the year 

 remaining for the summer occasionally feel the breeding impulse 

 after their comrades have left for the north, and so breed and found 

 permanent colonies. 



