

ASIATIC GOLDEN PLOVER. 41 



Burma peninsula, China, the islands of the Malay archipelago, Australia, 

 and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. It has been known to stray as far 

 as New Zealand in the east, and to the Mekran coast, Malta, Algeria, 

 Poland, and Heligoland in the west. 



The Eastern Golden Plover is represented on the American continent 

 by a species so nearly allied to the Asiatic bird that there can be little 

 doubt that it is conspecific with it. The American Golden Plover {Chara- 

 drius virginicus) is a slightly larger bird, varying in length of wing from 

 G'8 to 7*5 inch, the wing of the Asiatic species varying from 6*0 to 6*7 

 inch. The innermost secondaries of the American bird are supposed to be 

 relatively shorter, the distance from their tips to the tip of the wing vary- 

 ing from 1^ to 2 inch, whilst in the Asiatic species this distance usually 

 measures only from 0'5 to O8 inch. What appear to be intermediate forms 

 occur on the Pacific coast of Asia. Examples from Japan, China, Formosa, 

 Hainan, Borneo, and Cape York vary in length of wing from 6'2 to 

 G'9 inch, and in distance from the tips of the innermost secondaries to the 

 tip of the wing from 1-2 to 2'3 inch. The American form has occurred on 

 Heligoland (Seebohm, Ibis, 1877, p. 165), and an example was purchased 

 in Leadenhall Market, in London, on the 10th of November, 1882. I ex- 

 amined it in the flesh ; it was quite fresh, but it is impossible to say where 

 it was killed (Gurney, Ibis, 1883, p. 198). 



The Asiatic Golden Plover, like its cousin the Common Golden Plover, 

 is a bird of the tundra, frequenting the vast solitudes that are such a 

 characteristic feature of the Arctic regions. It spends its winters in 

 southern latitudes, and arrives on these Arctic tundras as soon as the south 

 wind melts the snow and calls the slumbering country into life. In its 

 habits it very closely resembles its near ally in Europe. It walks and runs 

 about the ground, or wades into the shallows in search of its food, which 

 consists principally of insects, worms, and slugs in summer, and of various 

 small marine animals, insects, &c. in winter. Its flight is very similar to 

 that of the Golden Plover, and it possesses the same habit of going in 

 flocks or small parties. 



I first made the acquaintance of the Asiatic Golden Plover on the 

 Arctic circle in the valley of the Yenesay. I shot my first specimen on 

 the 5th of June in our winter-quarters on the river, and afterwards secured 

 many more specimens as it passed the Koo-ray-i-ka on migration. I did 

 not observe it again until we reached lat. 69| on the open tundra, just 

 beyond the limit of forest-growth. Not a trace of a pine tree was to be 

 seen, and the birch trees had dwindled down to stunted bushes scarcely a 

 foot high. On the 14th of July, as we were delayed in our passage down 

 the river by a gale, I took advantage of the delay and went on shore for a 

 few hours. A climb of about a hundred feet brought me to the tundra. 

 I took a nest of the Dusky Ouzel with young birds as I climbed up the 



