OLD CROW 191 



of the Yukon Kiver. Evidently this route 600 miles south of Old 

 Crow is followed by the bands of cranes which traverse southern 

 Yukon and nest throughout Alaska. 



Family CHARADRIIDAE: Plovers, Turnstones, Surfbirds 



At Old Crow the species and numbers of plover were inconspicuous. 

 It seems to be off the route of the migrations which take so many 

 plover to nest in western arctic America. 



Charadrius semipalmatus Bonaparte 



2 females 20 May, 10 June weight 38.3, 54.1 g. little fat 4 broken follicles 



brood patch 



Three semipalmated plover were the first of the species seen at Old 

 Crow on May 19. They flew away eastward. During the time of 

 breakup and until June, while the river remained high, a few semi- 

 palmated plover were seen about marshy places near the village. As 

 the water fell pairs of these plover were occasionally seen on the 

 gravel bars and banks of the river. 



The female specimen taken on June 10 had evidently begun to lay 

 by June 7. Although she had completed laying, she weighed 14 grams 

 more than the average of the other females and three females from 

 Anaktuvuk, an overweight condition sometimes noticed in females 

 of other species at the time of laying. 



The breeding range of the semipahnated plover extends across 

 Alaska and Yukon without separation from the Mackenzie area. 

 We have no evidence as to how the Porcupine is reached from the 

 widespread migration through North America, and their wintering is 

 widespread but apparently continuous across southern United States. 



Its Indian name is Shishenetyi. 



Charadrius vociferus vociferus Linnaeus 



On May 20 Francis Williamson and Leonard Peyton saw a killdeer 

 standing and calling by a grassy pool behind the village. On June 1 

 Leonard and Sidney Peyton also saw one which might have been the 

 same individual. 



Rand (1946) mentions only one sight record of a killdeer in Yukon 

 territory. Its occasional presence in arctic Alaska is confirmed by 

 specimens from Barrow (Bailey, 1948) and on the basis of Eskimo 

 reports is suspected at Anaktuvuk and Kobuk. 



There is no report of killdeers nesting north of British Columbia 

 but it is apparent that individuals frequently wander in the western 

 Arctic. 



