262 Henshaw, Migration of the Pacific Plover. [jiily 



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 tyranny of habit. 



This explanation has at least the advantage that it explains 

 nothing, and hence leaves the problem open. It simply shifts 

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

 have proved sufficiently strong to make permanent residents of 

 certain species which have strayed to the archipelago. In the case 

 of other strays, like the island plover 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 turnstones 

 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, tatler, turn- 

 stone or curlew secures a mate and nests in Hawaii. Indeed it 

 seems highly probable 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. 



