266 tiMEHRl. 



Europe, must be considered as having accomplished the 

 immense distance across the Atlantic. It is to be noted, 

 by the way, that the best authorities consider that such 

 adverse flights must be greatly assisted by occasional 

 perching on the rigging of ships during the journey. 



The most common of these migrants is certainly 

 the American Golden Plover (Charadrius virginicus) 

 known also as Black-breasts and Greenbacks. Arriving 

 here sparsely in August, they increase in numbers in 

 September and 06lober, gradually disappearing in the 

 latter month, until in November, with the exception of a 

 few stragglers which may have been left behind, they 

 pass southwards in their further migration. On the 

 lowlands of the coast, on the grassy spaces, and on the 

 sandbanks, they will be found in often quite large flights, 

 though it is reported that the numbers recently noticed 

 are markedly fewer than in former years, while at the 

 same time they vary greatly from year to year. 



On the interior savannahs, specimens have also been 

 taken, but from their fewness they should no doubt be 

 regarded as stragglers. RlCHARD SCHOMBURGK, in his 

 *' Reisen in Britisch Guiana," records the nesting of this 

 species on the sand-banks of the coast, the eggs being 

 from 2 to 3 in number; but unless some mistake was 

 made as to the species, the nesting can only have been 

 quite occasional, and due to stragglers. 



The flesh of the bird, as in the case of nearly all our 

 migrants, is greatly in request for the table, and large 

 numbers of them are shot in the season. This continuous 

 slaughter, which they meet with along their entire course 

 of migration, is no doubt chiefly responsible for the very 

 large redu6lion in the numbers which are observed to 



