206 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



plumage of immaturity young birds which wander 

 far and wide as soon as they are able to forage for 

 themselves. Another distinguished stranger from 

 the east is Macqueen's Bustard. The range of 

 this species extends sufficiently far north in Asia 

 to place many of the birds within the influence 

 of the great western stream of migration, which 

 brings these stragglers into Europe. It is also 

 extremely probable that the many examples of the 

 Cream-coloured Courser which have been obtained 

 in our islands are birds borne on this western wave 

 from the far east, although the one or two speci- 

 mens which were captured in spring may have 

 been birds which have overshot the mark or been 

 blown from the Canary Islands by heavy gales. 



It is a curious and interesting fact that most 

 of the accidental visitors belonging to the Cha- 

 radriidae, or Plovers and Snipes, which visit 

 this country in autumn belong purely to North 

 American species. The Gray Phalarope and the 

 Asiatic Golden Plover are about the only excep- 

 tions ; and of these the former is circumpolar, and 

 the latter is represented on the American continent 

 by a closely allied form, which has itself been 

 known to visit the British Islands. The Asiatic 

 Golden Plover is an East Siberian bird which 

 winters in India, Burma, China, Australia, and 

 the islands of the Pacific. It is evident that stray 

 examples wander south-westwards in autumn in- 

 stead of south. These are probably birds that 

 breed in the valley of the Yenesay, and which get 

 into the stream of migrants travelling west from 



