148 Mackay on the Black-bellied Plover. [April 



where they formerly have been so incessantly pursued. I am also 

 strongly of the opinion that many of them, liaving a number of 

 times previously made this same journey, recognize such localities 

 as places to be avoided and consequently pass on. In passing 

 over such former resting places, of late years no responsive note 

 of invitation is heard in answer to passing flocks, for all is silent. 

 I am informed on what I consider reliable authority that 

 about twelve years ago large numbers of the Black-bellied 

 Plover and also of the Knot, or Redbreast {Tringa canutus^^ 

 were noted from the 20th of May to the ist of June on the Mag- 

 dalen Islands. When tired at sea they will alight on masses of 

 floating seaweed, and also on the ocean where they sit buoyantly, 

 swimming with ease, experiencing no difficulty in taking wing. 

 I judge they have never been very abundant in America, being 

 probably outnumbered many times by the American Golden 

 Plover ( C. dominicus) and the Knot ( Trhiga canutus) . 



It has occurred to me that possibly they may have in part 

 changed their habitat and lines of migration lo the Eastern Hemi- 

 spere although I am not in possession of any facts to substantiate 

 such a theory. It is, however, a fact that fewer of them visit us 

 now than formerly, although during the spring of 1890 quite a re- 

 markable change in the abundance of these birds was noticed in 

 the neighborhood of the island of Tuckernuck, Massachusetts ; 

 from a flock of about twenty-five birds which served as the nu- 

 cleus they continued to increase until six to eight hundred had 

 collected, the average number in the spring for the fifteen years 

 previous being two to three hundred birds. The spring of 1891 

 showed no such corresponding i-esult, for the number again de- 

 creased without any apparent reason to the average of former 

 years. During their stay in the above locality they frequented 

 the upland on the south side of the island, also Smith's Island 

 (a sand spit) and the extensive sand flats bare during low water, 

 following the inside line of the beach when flying, and generally 

 being in pairs or a few together. 



On their return from the north the first of the old 

 birds begin to appear about the 35th of July, from which date to 

 the 20th of August is the height of their abundance. The young 

 birds come, a few scattering ones, about the first of September, 

 rarely before, and they often remain until the latter part of No- 

 vember, or until snow flies. The earliest dates on which I have 



