CIIAUADRIID.E — THE PLOVERS — SQUATAROLA. 



137 



tliu Arctic coast, July 4. The uest contained tour eggs, and was composed of a little 

 u itlieri'd grass, placed in a depression on the side or face of a very gentle euiiueucc. 

 iiotli i)arcnts were seen, and the male shot. They were at tirst mistaken for the 

 Uoldeu I'lover ; but their note and general appearanc^e soon undeceived him. This 

 was the first of the species he had ever seen during his sojourn in the country. 

 While it may exist on tlu! Arctic coast and in the Barren (.J rounds, he is quite 

 coutidi'Mt that lu' never met with it before. The eggs in this instance contained 

 partially developed endnyos. On the following day, July ~>, 18G4, another nest, 

 containing four eggs also, in the same stage of development, was secured. 



A third nest, with four eggs, Avas discovered the following night, and a snare was 

 set to secure the parent. The fenude was taken, but before it was secured, a Snowy 

 Owl devoured the bird and destroyed the eggs. 



In regard to the breeding of this I'lover, we learn from Aliddendorft" that he 

 observed none of this species on the IJoganida earlier than the 2r)th of May. By the 

 L'Oth of June the females were sitting there on their nests, which had been formed 

 by collecting together dried leaves aiul grasses, and in which were four eggs, which 

 he compares in shape with the eggs of the Lapwing and the Dotterel {CJutntdrlus 

 iiinrlnellus). He gives their average length at li.lO inches, and their average largest 

 diameter 1.4)1 inches. They differed very considerably in size, the largest being 2.18 

 inches in length, and the smallest only 1.87 inches. Nor does the c(dor afford any 

 distinctive mark. The ground-color is sometimes yelloAvish gray and sometimes 

 brownish yellow, the dark-brown spots being like those of the Ch. ii/iirialis. Midden- 

 (lorff also found this bird breeding on the Byrranga Mountains, in latitude 74". 



ilr. Dresser describes one of the eggs obtained by Middendorff as nu/asuring 2.07 

 by 1.40 inches, with a ground-color of a dull day-ltrown, and bearing markings 

 distributed over the surfaiic, but collecting together at the larger end, blackish brown 

 in color, and irregular in shape. There were al'-o a few unch'rlying jmrplish shell- 

 markings. 



Eggs of this species collected by Mr. MacFarlane in an island in Franklin's Bay, 

 on the Arctic coast, in July, 1804, an<l in 18(!5, and nund)cred lllSW, 11196, and 

 11199, S. I., exhibit certain general resend>lances to the egg of the more common 

 (li)lden I'lover {Ch. virf/itnrus). Tlu'V have, however, certain constant differences 

 which do not readily adnut of exact description. These three sets, two of four and 

 one of three eggs, differ from the average egg of the fiftjinims in the more nearly 

 ('([C'd distribution of the s])ots over the whole egg. In two of thes" sets the ground 

 color is of a light greenish drab; in the other the ground is a light rufous drab, 

 without any mixture of green. The s]K)ts are of a dark shade of umber or bistre, 

 and the darkness of the shade is tpiite uniform, and never intensified, as in the eggs 

 (if the virrjlitkus. They are strongly pyrifcu-m in shape, and vary in length from 

 1.90 inches to 2.30, and in breadth from 1.40 to 1.47 inches. They are longer and 

 broader than the virfjmicus, and their breadth is also proportionally greater. 



.Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebohm. in the summer of 187o, found the Gray I'lover 

 breeding on the tundras of the I'etchora River, in Northern Bussia in Europe, where 

 tliey procured a rich series of eggs descriV)ed as intermediate in color between those 

 of the Golden Plover and the Lapwing, and subject to variations, some being much 

 browner, and others more olive, but none so green as the eggs of the Lapwing, 

 nor so orange as those of the Blover. The blotching is in every respect the same, 

 the underlying spots equally indistinct, and the surface spots large, especially at the 

 greater end, but occasionally small and scattered. In size they vary from 1.90 by 

 1.35 to 2.20 by 1.40 inches. 



VOL. I. — 18 



