Vo1 ' 1920 CYI1 ] Chapman, Proposed Neiv Race of the Killdeer. 105 



DESCRIPTION OF A PROPOSED NEW RACE OF THE 

 KILLDEER FROM THE COAST OF PERU. 



BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. 



Collections received during 1919, by the American Museum 

 from its Peruvian representative, Mr. Harry Watkins, contain 

 fourteen specimens of a Killdeer which breeds on the coast of Peru, 

 at least from Lima to near the Ecuadorian boundary. Killdeer 

 have been before recorded from Peru, 1 from Colombia, 2 Ecuador, 3 

 Paraguay, 3 and Chile, 3 but it has been assumed that these birds 

 were winter visitants from North America. It seems, however, 

 not improbable that they were resident birds, as, beyond question, 

 are our specimens from Peru. These represent adults at the 

 beginning and the end of the post-nuptial molt, and young in fresh 

 juvenal plumage and in the down. 



This discovery places the Killdeer, distributionally, in the group 

 of Plover to which Octhodromiis wilsonius and Mgialitis collaris 4 

 belong and suggests that our northern Killdeer is derived from the 

 South American form. Of Mgialitis collaris, Ridgway remarks 

 that South American specimens " much more often (in fact usually) 

 have the cinnamon on head and neck present and also more pro- 

 nounced," 5 and it is in the greater extent of the rusty margins of 

 the upperparts that the Peruvian Killdeer may be distinguished 

 from the North American and West Indian forms. This difference 

 is sufficiently pronounced and, so far as our material goes, constant 

 to warrant the recognition of the Peruvian bird as a well-marked 

 race for which I propose the name 



'Scl. & Salv., P. Z. S., 1S6S, p. 176 (Tambo Valley, southwestern Peru); Taczanowski, 

 Ibid., 1S79. p. 244 (Pacasmayo). 



2 Scl. & Salv., P. Z. S., 1S79, p. 547 (Medellin). 



s Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., XXIV, pp. 247, 742. 



4 In default of material to consider the conclusions in regard to genera reached by Ridg- 

 way (Bull. U. S. N. M., 50, Pt. VIII), I follow here the nomenclature of the British Museum 

 Catalogue. 



5 Bull. U. S. N. M., 50, Pt. VIII, p. 141. 



