146 



BIRDS OF ISToRTH CAROLINA 



Remarks. Immature birds are sometimes confused with those of the Black-bellied Plover, 

 but, aside from differences of size and color, the absence of the fourth toe in the present species 

 will always distinguish it. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. Breeds in the Arctic regions; winters in southern South America. 



Range in North Carolina. Rare migrant, chiefly in fall. 



FIG. 108. GOLDEN PLOVER. 



FIG. 109. FOOT OF 

 GOLDEN PLOVER. 



A very rare bird with us. In 1871 Coues reported it as a common migrant in 

 October, at Fort Macon. Cairns recorded it as a rare migrant in Buncombe County 

 fifteen years ago, and one was taken at Raleigh, by W. S. Primrose, in 1884. 



McAtee took specimens on September 7 and 23, 1909, and on April 18 and August 

 30, 1910, on Currituck beach, opposite Church's Island. 



"Most birds appear to return to their summer homes over much the same route by which 

 they left them. There are, however, a few marked exceptions to this rule. Among our land-birds, 

 the Connecticut Warbler enters the United States through Florida and journeys thence northwest- 

 ward along the Alleghanies, and west to Missouri, to the Upper Mississippi Valley and Manitoba. 

 At this season it is unknown on the Atlantic coast north of Florida, but during its return migra- 

 tion, in September and October, it is often not uncommon from Massachusetts southward, and, 

 at this season, is rare or unknown in the Mississippi Valley south of Chicago. (See Cooke, '04.) 



"Among our water-birds, cases of this kind are more frequent. The fall migration often brings 

 to the Atlantic Coast species which are rarely if ever seen there in the spring. The Black Tern, 

 for example, occurs near New York City in numbers, from August to October, but is not found 

 there in the spring. 



"The Golden Plover, as has been shown by Cooke ('93), after breeding in June on the shores 

 of the Arctic Ocean, in August migrates southeastward to Labrador, where it feeds on the crow- 

 berry (Empetrum), laying on a supply of fat as fuel for the remarkable voyage which follows. 

 From Labrador the birds fly south to Nova Scotia and thence lay their course for northern South 

 America in a direct line across the Atlantic. 



"Under favorable conditions they may pass the Bermudas without stopping, but should they 

 encounter storms they rest in these islands and are also driven to our coast. Their first stop 

 may be made in the Lesser Antilles, through or over which they proceed to South America, en 

 route to their winter quarters in southwestern Brazil and the La Plata region. 



"In returning to their Arctic home these Plover pass northward through Central America and 

 the Mississippi Valley, the main line of then- fall and spring routes, therefore, being separated by 

 as much as 1,500 miles. 



"The explanations advanced to account for the gradual development of migration routes, over 

 which birds in the fall retrace the path followed in the spring, are inadequate to account for the 

 origin of these phenomenal journeys, on which the pioneer voyagers must apparently have em- 

 barked unguided by either inherited or acquired experience. Nor do we understand how birds 

 have learned to cross regularly over bodies of water, hundreds or even thousands of miles in 

 width. 



