740 Birds of Celebes: Charadriidae. 



Measuremeats (20 specimens from Celebes and Talaut). Wing 155 — 175 mm; tail ca. 60; 



tarsus ca. 44; bill from forehead ca. 25. See, also, W.Blasius 23; Finsch & Hartl. 2. 

 Egg. Light buff to very pale buff with a slight olive tinge, blotched and spotted with rich 



brown; grey underlpng marldngs small and comparatively few; size 47 — 48.8 X 32.3 



—33.3 mm (from Seebohm XXP-']. 

 Nest. One found by Seebohm in the valley of the Yenesei was "merely a hollow in the 



ground, iipon a iiiece of turfy land, overgrown with moss and lichen, and was hned 



with broken stalks of reindeer moss (XXP'^}. 

 Distribution. Asia; Alaska; Polynesia; thi'oughout the East Indies; Austraha; New Zealand; 



N. E. Africa; Europe as a straggler (cf. Sharpe and Dresser III; Salvadori 



5, 18, 36; Legge 13; Baird, Brewer & Ridgw. el; E.P.Ramsay 27; Buller 



26; Wiglesw. 39; Taczanowski 42). 



In the Celebesian area: — Minahassa (Meyer i2, etc.); Gorontalo Distr. (Forsten 



d 1, etc.); Gulf of Boni — Luwu (Weber 41); Togian (Meyer 12]; Talaut Is. 



(Nat. Coll. 43, 49); Saleyer (Everett 51). 



This species, the eastern representative of the Golden Plover, C. pluvialis, 

 of Europe, is distinguishable from that bird by its grey axillaries (not white), 

 and smaller size. The American form, C. donmiiciis, is less easily if at all to be 

 separated, but, as Prof. AV. Blasius (23) and others point out, while the bill 

 and tarsus of C. fiilvus are as long or longer , its wing and tail are notably 

 shorter than in the American bird; the latter is also said to have one or two 

 more bars on the tail. Dr. Sharpe, however, has found that they seem to 

 overlap to such an extent that their distinction does not appear advisable. 



C.fulvus is undoubtedly a great migrant, the main body of the species 

 jjrobably breeding in Siberia, where its eggs have been found by v. Middendorff 

 (III, 42), and there are carefully identified specimens taken by Seebohm (XX-P"); 

 Nelson also recorded it as breeding on both coasts of the Bering Sea (42). It 

 breeds, nevertheless, in New Caledonia, as shown by Mr. Layard (10, 11, 15, 

 16), and Sir Walter Buller (26) records the discovery of a nest and eggs on 

 Portland Island, New Zealand. In North Celebes Meyer got this Plover at 

 Limbotto in July and on Togian Island in August; some birds, therefore, remain 

 throughout the year, but, as already remarked, we have seen none in breeding 

 plumage. ¥insch says that it is found throughout the year on the Gilbert 

 and Marshall atolls, and our artist, Mr. B. Geisler, tells us that this is the 

 case in New Britain. Swinhoe described it as common all the year round in 

 Formosa (h 1) , but the supposed eggs obtained by him are discredited by 

 Seebohm (Ibis 1879, 154), Legge (B. Ceylon 1880, 942), and Harting (P. Z. S. 

 1882, 355), who hold them for those oi Aegialitis geoffroyi. Sufficient, however, 

 is known to show that many individuals of a great migratory species remain 

 behind in their winter quarters, and some of them even breed there. Such facts 

 seem to throw some light upon the nature of the migratory instinct in birds, 

 as also upon a process — one of many — of colonisation by birds, affecting 

 the questions of geographical distribution. 



