Recent Lite, 



y^9 



Asiatic form. C/i. d. fiilvits, iniii^ratin^- into northwcstei-n Alaska to hiced, 

 and tlie American form crossing Bering's Strait into Asia. Mr. Ridgwav 

 and I have examined immense series of tiicse birds from the regions in 

 question apropos of iiis 'Water Birds of North America' and 'Manual of 

 North American I>irds,' as well as mj 'Ornithological Explorations in 

 Kamtschatka" and my various papers on Japanese and Hawaiian ornitho- 

 logy ; and from the fact that we found no I'Ji. fitlviis among the numerous 

 Golden Plo\ers collected during the migiating season in more southern 

 latitudes in America, and no Cli. (foiiiiiiicns among the Asiatic or Austra- 

 lian specimens, we concluded that all C//. domiiiicus migrate south along 

 the American coasts, and all C//. fulvns, whether bred in Alaska or not, 

 along the Asiatic shores. I am inclined to conclude that the Tschuktschi 

 individuals of C/i. domhticas also retrace their steps across Bering's Strait 

 and join their American confreres in going South, for, even if there were 

 no further evidence, it seems prol)al)le that were the small Tscliukt.schi 

 colony of the American form to tra\el along the migrating routes of Ch. 

 fiilvita they wouUl soon be utterly absorbed l)y the latter. I do not l)elie\e 

 that two nices (and Palmen admits tiuit they are only races, p. 346) can 

 migrate along the same route without their becoming entirely assimi- 

 lated. Of course, single individuals, or even small detached flocks, of one 

 race ma}' be led by some accident to follow the route of the other race, es- 

 pecially in a case like the present where the api)arent routes cross each 

 other, but these indi\iduals j>rove nothing as to the >e<;ii/ar route of the 

 race, so that e\-en if isolated specimens of C//. doji/iii/rns shoidd be fouiui 

 occasionally in southern latitudes of Eastern Asia, such occurrence would 

 be no valid argument against the generalization made by me (Results 

 Orn. Expl. Kamtsch., p. 105), in fact, they are to be expected, and it would 

 be strange indeed did they not occasionally occur. Prof. Palmen, how. 

 ever, takes exception to my conclusion, simply because Swinhoe in 

 former days recorded the capture of both Ch. Jii/x'us and dotnitiicHs (v/i- 

 ginicus, as he called it) in China and Japan, and he thinks it unsafe to 

 generalize before all Swinhoe's examples ha\e been re-examinc'd. Now, 

 in the first place, it is pretty safe to say that Swinhoe at that time had 

 not grasped the true differences between the two forms ; in the second i)lace, 



Mr. Seebohm. the present owner of the Swinhoe collection has expressly 

 declared that Cli. virginicus •has not yet been foiuid in Asia" ; in the 



