138 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CHARADRIID^E. Genus OXYECHUS. 



Subfamily GHABADRIINM. 



KILLDEER PLOVER. 



OXYECHUS VOCIFERUS (Linnaus) . 

 PLATE XIX. 



Charadrius vociferus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 253 (1766) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. 13. iii. 

 p. 28 (1885) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 123, pi. 39 (1896). 



/Egialitis vocifera (Linn.), Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 266 (1883) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. 

 Brit. B. pt. xxv (1893) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 226 (1894). 



Oxyechus vociferus (Linn.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 155 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 242 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British: Two instances of the occur- 

 rence of the Kildeer Plover have been recorded, one of which must be viewed 

 with the greatest doubt. This latter concerns an example which was said 

 to have been killed in April, 1857, near Christchurch, in Hampshire (Sclater, 

 Ibis, 1862, p. 275). A second example appears to be genuinely British. It was 

 shot by Mr. Jenkinson on the 15th of January, 1885, at Tresco, in the 

 Scilly Islands, and was identified by Mr. Howard Saunders (Zoologist, 1885, 

 p. 113.) Incidentally we may remark that on the 7th of September, 1898, 

 we flushed an example of the Killdeer Plover on Paignton Sands. The 

 bird rose at our very feet, and we had ample opportunity of fully identifying 

 this characteristically marked species. It was not obtained, and its record, 

 of course, is worthless from a strictly scientific point of view. Foreign : 

 Nearctic region, and parts of the Neotropical region in winter. It breeds 

 throughout the United States, north to South Canada, and on the plains 

 of the Saskatchewan. It is a resident in the Southern States and California, but 

 migratory in the north, passing the Bermudas on abnormal migration, and win- 

 tering in the West Indies, Mexico (where a few remain to breed), Central America, 

 and South America, as far south as the Intertropical realm (Colombia and Peru). 



Allied forms. None of sufficient propinquity to require notice, the 

 three other species all being inhabitants of Africa. 



Habits. In many parts of its range the Killdeer Plover is sedentary, but 

 in the colder portions it is more or less migratory, although it often lingers even 

 in them until late in the autumn, and appears again very early in the following 



